Protect Yourself When Rejecting Applicants

One of the hardest parts of landlord management is having to reject prospective tenants who don’t meet your requirements. Accepting a tenancy is the easy part, assuming of course you’ve done your due diligence throughout the ever-important screening process. By the time you’re ready to accept a tenancy, you should be happy and confident in your choice. You’ve met with everyone, reviewed applications, and followed up with references. You’re confident in your choice. But assuming again that you’ve gone through a thorough screening process, that means you now have applicants to reject as well. Nobody likes to be rejected, and nobody likes to do the rejecting either. It can harbor ill feelings and negative scenarios. Understanding of course that this is a touchy process, there are ways that you can both respectfully and legally reject an applicant. In doing so, you’ll be protecting yourself, your investment and you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing that you did everything you could to make the rejection process as painless as possible for all parties involved. Displaying that level of respect for the process and for the applicants will go a long way in protecting your rear end.

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So, What Can You Do and What Can’t You Do?

First and foremost, you need to know how you are legally entitled to act, and you need to understand what would put you into a legal grey area. According to Canada’s Human Rights Act of 1984, a landlord cannot reject a tenant based on a variety of recognized and prohibited grounds of discrimination. We’re talking race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, origin, skin colour, religion, marital or family status, pardoned offences, and disability. If you reject a tenant based on these grounds, you will be in direct violation of the Human Rights Act. Now, it’s important to understand that this doesn’t mean that you can’t reject an applicant of a certain colour, race, religion, sex etc. What it means, is that if you plan to reject an applicant, you’d better have a good reason that doesn’t apply to any of the described characteristics.

With that said, Ontario landlords can accept or reject an applicant based on a multitude of criteria, including credit checks, income information, personal or professional references and rental history. Which brings us back to a reoccurring theme on these blogs: have a proper screening process!

As a landlord, you are required to treat every candidate equally. With that said, it’s part of your job to make judgements against the applicant’s’ character. How else are you supposed to decide on who to accept? Making this decision can be the scariest part of landlord management, as being stuck with a bad tenant can be a massive source of stress. You are entitled to accept or reject an applicant based on your own judgement calls, but you must ensure that your judgement does not break Canada’s Human Rights Code. Just understand that when making your selection, your reasoning should be based on who is the best fit, and nothing else. The best way to ensure that there is no grey area in which an applicant can claim discrimination, is to require the same process from each applicant across the board. You should require the same rental application from all prospects, and you should do the same credit checks, background checks and reference checks for all. Once you’ve made your decision, applicants should be contacted within an appropriate window of time whether you are accepting or rejecting. This will give the applicants time to make other living arrangements, and will ensure transparency. It’s typically recommended to follow this process in writing, as to create a legally sound record of the process.

Make the Phone Call

In addition to sending a written rejection, you should give the prospects a call. Speaking directly shows respect and character. It also gives you a chance to properly thank the applicant for their time and interest. This will greatly limit any ill feelings a rejected applicant may feel.

The big take home here, is that the power to choose is in your hands. With that said, there are right and wrong ways to do anything, and the rejection process requires a touch of tact. Don’t be afraid to reject, just make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, and in a respectful manner.