No Canadian credit history and no Canadian landlord references yet? This guide covers the application pack that works without them, what a landlord may and may not require at signing in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, and Alberta, and how to read the lease before you sign.
Applies in: across Canada
Renting your first apartment in Canada is a paperwork exercise before it is a housing search. A landlord is deciding one question: will this person pay the rent, on time, and look after the place? A newcomer with no Canadian credit file and no Canadian landlord to call has no ready-made answer to that question, so the application has to supply one in another form. The good news is that the rules in the largest provinces anticipate exactly this situation. Ontario's human rights rules say a lack of rental or credit history should not count against you. Quebec's human rights commission says a landlord must offer you a way to demonstrate your payment habits. Neither rule hands you a unit, but both stop an empty Canadian file from ending the conversation.
This guide is about renting a home to live in, as a newcomer, in any province or territory. It is not legal advice, and it does not cover buying, shared accommodation where you share a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, or a short-term rental business. Those have different rules. Where a figure or a rule is stated here, it comes from the province page named in the Sources. Where this guide has not verified a province's figure, it says so, and tells you to check the province's tenancy office before you sign.
Rent in Canada is rarely just a number. A listing at one price with heat, hot water, and parking included can cost less each month than a cheaper listing where you pay electricity, heat, and a parking stall separately. Before you view anything, write down the total you can pay each month including utilities, parking, laundry, and tenant insurance if the lease requires it. Ontario's standard lease separates base rent from separate charges for parking and other services, and names who is responsible for electricity, heat, and water, so a lease that leaves those blank is a lease you have not finished reading.
Choose the type of home with the same care. An apartment in a purpose-built rental building, a basement suite in a house, and a condominium unit rented from its owner can all be covered by the same tenancy law in a province, but the building rules differ: a condominium's declaration, bylaws, and rules may restrict pets or smoking even where the province's tenancy law would not, and Ontario's standard lease guide notes that a tenant in a condominium agrees to follow those rules. Ask, before you apply, whether the building has rules that affect you, whether laundry is in the unit or shared, and how heating is billed. A viewing is the time to check water pressure, heating, windows, locks, and noise, not the day you move in. Photograph anything already damaged at the viewing and keep the photos; they become the starting point for the move-in record in Step 5.
Never send money before you have seen the unit in person and have a lease or a written agreement in front of you. A landlord who asks for a deposit to hold a unit you have not viewed, or who will only communicate by message and cannot show the unit, is asking you to pay for a promise with no paper behind it. Walk away from that listing and keep looking. The deposit rules in Step 3 protect you only once a tenancy exists; they do not recover money sent to a stranger.
A landlord may request rental history, credit references, or a credit check, and may ask for authorization to conduct one. In Ontario, the Human Rights Commission adds the qualifications that matter to a newcomer: a lack of rental or credit history should not count against you, income information can only be considered on its own when no other information is made available, and only to make sure you earn enough to pay the rent. In Quebec, the human rights commission says the landlord must offer you a way to demonstrate your payment habits or ability to pay, and names proof of income or regular payment of phone bills as the kind of evidence that does it.
Assemble the pack before the first viewing, so you can hand it over complete:
If a landlord asks for consent to a credit check, read what you are consenting to and decide. A check will usually find little or nothing for a newcomer, because Canada's credit bureaus track Canadian borrowing and a foreign credit file does not transfer. That empty result is the reason the pack matters, not a reason to hide from the check. Do not provide a Social Insurance Number, bank passwords, or copies of documents to a listing contact before you have verified who they are and that a real unit exists. Our newcomer bank account guide and Social Insurance Number guide cover the separate first-week tasks those documents belong to.
Deposit rules are provincial, and the four provinces below are the ones this guide verified on their own tenancy pages at writing time. The rule that matters is the rule in the province where the unit sits, not the rule in the province you came from and not the rule in the listing.
Ontario. Most residential tenancy agreements signed on or after April 30, 2018 must use the standard lease, and the landlord must give the tenant a copy within 21 days after the tenant signs. A lease cannot take away a right or responsibility under the Residential Tenancies Act, and additional terms that try to do so are void. The standard lease guide lists terms requiring damage or pet deposits, or interest on rent arrears, as examples of void terms. The only security deposit the Act permits is a rent deposit under section 106, capped at the lesser of the amount of rent for one rent period and the amount of rent for one month, applied to the last rent period of the tenancy. It cannot be used as a damage deposit. A key deposit is a separate section of the standard lease, and the law limits its amount and treatment. The standard lease also has a section on tenant insurance: a landlord and tenant can agree that the tenant must have liability insurance, and the tenant must provide proof if asked, while contents insurance is the tenant's own choice.
British Columbia. A security deposit, also called a damage deposit, can be no more than half of the first month's rent, set by the rent at the start of the tenancy. A pet damage deposit is separate and can be no more than half of one month's rent regardless of the number of pets, so the two together cannot exceed one full month's rent. Landlords cannot charge a fee for accepting, reviewing, or processing a rental application, and cannot charge a fee for pets beyond the pet damage deposit. Condition inspections are not optional extras in British Columbia: the landlord and tenant must inspect the unit together and complete a Condition Inspection Report, and a landlord who does not properly complete the move-out inspection may lose the right to claim against the deposit. A landlord cannot keep a deposit on their own; keeping any part of it requires the tenant's written permission or an order of the Residential Tenancy Branch. Once the landlord has the tenant's forwarding address, the landlord has 15 days to return the deposit with any interest, and a tenant whose deposit is not dealt with in that time can apply for double the deposit.
Quebec. The Tribunal administratif du logement states the lessor's limits in a short list: the lessor cannot require payment of more than one month's rent, cannot require rent in advance for more than the first payment period, cannot charge additional amounts in the form of a security deposit or other charge such as a key deposit, and cannot require postdated cheques. Any lease clause providing for those practices is invalid. Rent is the lessee's primary obligation and must be paid in full on the due date, and the lessee has the right to require a receipt. The Tribunal advises keeping proofs of rent payment for three years, because the burden of proving payment lies with the lessee. A lease in Quebec is a written contract under the Civil Code, and the Tribunal is the body that hears residential tenancy disputes. If a landlord's request goes beyond the first month's rent, the FAQ explains the remedy in the Tribunal's own terms.
Alberta. A security deposit cannot be more than one month's rent at the time the tenancy starts, and it cannot be increased as rent increases or for any other reason during the tenancy. Landlords must deposit security deposits into an interest-bearing trust account in Alberta within two banking days of collecting them. The minimum annual interest rate is set by a formula in the Security Deposit Interest Rate Regulation, and Alberta's published chart gives 0.0 percent for January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026. Tenants can ask for a receipt showing the amount paid, the date, and the parties. A tenancy agreement cannot take away any right set out in the Residential Tenancies Act, and anything in an agreement that waives such a right is void.
Everywhere else. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut each have their own tenancy legislation, their own deposit caps, and their own dispute body. This guide states no deposit figure for any of them, because no figure for them was verified on an official page for this guide. The landlord-tenant procedure grid on this site names the dispute body for each province and territory, which is the right starting point, but the deposit figure itself must come from that province's tenancy page, checked before you sign. Do not carry an Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, or Alberta figure across a provincial border.
A written lease is worth having even where the province also recognizes a verbal agreement. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation puts the reason simply: a written lease clearly specifies what landlord and tenant are agreeing to, including the rent, the parties responsible, what is included and what is not, and the conditions for terminating the lease, and both written and oral agreements define legal rights and responsibilities that can be referred to if a conflict arises. A verbal agreement makes that reference much harder, because each party may remember it differently.
Read every section, not just the rent and the dates. Check the total rent and what it includes, the term and what happens when it ends, who pays for utilities, heat, water, parking, and storage, the rules on smoking and pets, whether tenant liability insurance is required and proof must be provided, who is responsible for maintenance and repairs, and what the lease says about guests, additional occupants, assignment, and subletting. In Ontario, the standard lease guide states that a fixed-term tenancy does not end when the term ends: the tenant may stay as a monthly tenant on the same terms unless the tenancy is properly ended. In every province, a term that contradicts the tenancy law is not saved by your signature. Ask about anything you do not understand before you sign, and ask for the answer in writing where it changes what you owe or what you may do. If the lease is not in a language you read comfortably, get help reading it before signing; Ontario's standard lease guide is published in many languages, and the province's tenancy office can explain the form.
Sign only the lease you read. Keep a signed copy, keep every receipt, and keep a record of every payment with the date, amount, and method. In Quebec, the Tribunal's advice to keep payment proofs for three years is a good habit in every province. If the landlord promises repairs, an appliance, or a parking stall verbally, get the promise written into the lease or into a signed note before you rely on it.
On the day you get the keys, walk the unit with the landlord if you can, and record its condition in writing with dated photographs: walls, floors, appliances, windows, plumbing, and anything already damaged or not working. In British Columbia, that walk-through is the Condition Inspection Report, and both parties must complete and sign it. In other provinces the form differs, but the discipline is the same: a written, dated record signed by both parties, with a copy for you, is the evidence that decides whether damage at move-out was yours or was already there. Report defects and needed repairs in writing promptly, and keep a copy of the report. Do not rely on a verbal promise to fix something.
Set up what the lease leaves to you: utilities in your name where the lease requires it, tenant insurance where the lease requires liability cover or where you want contents cover, and a rent payment method that leaves a record. A bank transfer, cheque, or payment through a system that generates a receipt is better than cash with no receipt, and in Quebec you have the right to require a receipt for rent paid. If you share the unit, decide in writing who pays what and who is named on the lease; in Ontario, every tenant named in the standard lease is responsible for all tenant obligations, including the full rent. Roommates who are not named on the lease have a different position, and that difference should be understood before anyone moves in, not after a dispute starts.
Most tenancy problems are paper problems with a paper remedy. Keep the lease, the condition record, the receipts, and every message. Contact the province's tenancy office or tribunal for information about the procedure in that province: Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board, British Columbia's Residential Tenancy Branch, Quebec's Tribunal administratif du logement, Alberta's Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service, and the equivalent body in every other province and territory. The landlord-tenant procedure grid on this site sets out, province by province, which body hears which kind of dispute and what to prepare. Do not stop paying rent to force a repair, and do not withhold rent over a deposit dispute, unless the province's tenancy office has told you in terms that you may do so; in British Columbia, withholding an overpaid deposit from the next month's rent is a specific remedy with a written-notice requirement, and it is not a general right to deduct. Pay the rent, keep the proof, and file the dispute.
A landlord may ask about rental history and may request credit references or a credit check, but having no history is not the same as having a bad history. In Ontario, the Human Rights Commission states it plainly: a lack of rental or credit history should not count against you, and a landlord who asks about income must also look at any available information on rental history, credit references, and credit rating. A landlord in Ontario also cannot apply a rent-to-income ratio such as a 30 percent cut-off unless the unit is subsidized housing. In Quebec, the human rights commission says the person renting you the apartment must offer you a way to demonstrate your payment habits or your ability to pay the rent, and gives proof of income or regular payment of phone bills as examples. The commission strongly discourages credit checks in housing, although the law does not prohibit them. Neither province gives a newcomer a right to a particular unit. What the rules do is stop an empty Canadian file from being treated as a failed file. Bring the pack in Step 2 so the landlord has something real to assess instead of an empty file.
Offer evidence that you pay what you owe, in whatever country that evidence comes from. A letter from an employer stating your job and pay, recent pay slips or bank statements, and proof that you paid rent, a mortgage, or phone and utility bills on time all speak to the same question a credit check tries to answer. References help most when they are specific: a previous landlord abroad who can confirm you paid on time and left the place in good condition, or an employer who can confirm steady employment. In Quebec, proof of income or regular payment of phone bills is the example the human rights commission itself names. If a landlord asks for consent to run a credit check, you can agree or decline; a check on a newcomer with no Canadian borrowing will usually return little, which is why the other documents matter more. Do not hand over original documents. Show them, provide copies where asked, and keep a note of what you gave to whom.
Do not offer extra months of rent as your opening move, and never pay extra months because a landlord demanded them in a province where demanding them is unlawful. In Ontario, the only security deposit a landlord may collect is a rent deposit under section 106 of the Residential Tenancies Act, capped at the lesser of one rent period and one month's rent, and a landlord cannot require rent in advance beyond that deposit. In Quebec, a lessor cannot require payment of more than one month's rent, cannot require rent in advance for more than the first payment period, and cannot charge a security deposit or key deposit at all. A voluntary payment is a different legal matter from a required one, and in Quebec a payment described as voluntary has been treated as a binding agreement where it was freely offered, so an offer made to win a unit can waive the very protection the law gives you. The safer route is the one the human rights rules point to: proof of income, payment records, references, and, where the landlord applies the same requirement to every tenant, a guarantor. If you do agree to pay anything beyond the first month, get it in writing, name exactly which months it covers, and check the province's tenancy office first.
A guarantor is someone who promises to pay your rent if you cannot, and who signs the lease in that role. It is a serious commitment for the person making it, not a character reference. In Ontario, the Human Rights Commission states that landlords can only ask you for a guarantor to sign the lease if they have the same requirements for all tenants, so a guarantor cannot be demanded of newcomers alone while other applicants are not asked. A guarantor who lives in Canada and has Canadian income or assets is the person a landlord can most readily assess, which is why a relative or friend already established in Canada is the usual choice. Before anyone signs as guarantor, that person should read the lease clause that names them, understand whether the promise covers only rent or also damage and other charges, and know how long the promise lasts. Do not sign as your own guarantor through a company or arrangement you do not understand, and do not pay a stranger to act as one. If no guarantor is available, the rest of the application pack is still the right answer, not an unlawful deposit.
It depends entirely on the province, and the differences are large. In Ontario, expect first month's rent plus a rent deposit of at most one month's rent, applied to the last rent period, plus a key deposit limited to the actual replacement cost; damage, pet, and cleaning deposits are not permitted, and the standard lease guide lists terms requiring them as void. In British Columbia, a landlord may charge a security deposit of no more than half of the first month's rent, and a separate pet damage deposit of no more than half of one month's rent if pets are allowed; the two together cannot exceed one full month's rent, and no fee may be charged for accepting or processing an application. In Quebec, a lessor may require only the first month's rent, and no security deposit, key deposit, or other additional charge. In Alberta, a security deposit cannot be more than one month's rent at the time the tenancy starts and cannot be increased during the tenancy. Every other province and territory has its own cap or rule, and this guide states no figure for them. Before you pay, check the tenancy office page for the province where the unit sits, and get a receipt that shows the amount, the date, and the parties.
Do not pay it quietly and do not argue it out on the doorstep. Ask for the request in writing, keep the listing and every message, and check the province's rule on the tenancy office page before you decide anything. In Ontario, a lease term that requires a deposit, fee, or penalty the Act does not permit is void and cannot be enforced, and the standard lease guide gives damage and pet deposits as examples. In Quebec, a clause providing for a security deposit or other additional charge is invalid and the lessee is not required to comply with it, and the lessee may apply to the Tribunal administratif du logement to have their rights respected. In British Columbia, an overpaid deposit can be withheld from the next month's rent if the tenant tells the landlord in writing, or recovered through dispute resolution. If you believe you were refused a unit because of citizenship, place of origin, race, family status, or another protected ground, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Quebec human rights commission both handle housing discrimination complaints, and Quebec's commission states that filing a complaint has no impact on an immigration file. For the deposit itself, the province's tenancy office is the first call, not a lawyer.
No deposit figure, rent-increase figure, or notice period is stated in this guide for Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, Northwest Territories, or Nunavut, because none was verified on that province or territory's official tenancy page for this guide. No rent level, vacancy rate, or average rent for any city is stated, because none was verified on an official page for this guide. No legal advice is given in this guide. Re-check the tenancy office page for the province where the unit sits on the day you sign: the province's page governs over any summary, including this guide.