Searching for a tenant takes time and effort to find the right people for your property.

First you must advertise your property and show it to prospective applicants. Prospects will submit an application and Landlords will need to check references, perform credit checks and determine if the applicant is suitable for the property. All of this work takes time, and some Landlords want to charge a fee for this time. 

Part two section 15 of the Residential Tenancy Act in BC prohibits Landlords from requiring a deposit or charging a fee for accepting or processing the rental application, investigating an applicant's suitability or accepting the tenant. What this means is a Landlord is not entitled to be directly compensated for these efforts. Rent for the property will need to cover these anticipated costs for Landlords. I have seen some Landlords state the fee will be added to the rent or deposit when the tenancy is accepted, this is inappropriate and not in accordance with the Residential Tenancy Act.

Asking a potential tenant to provide an amount of money could deter quality tenants from applying because they are informed of the law. Landlords could find themselves in a Residential Tenancy Board hearing if an applicant submitted their application fee, then wasn’t selected to rent the unit. 

Being a Landlord is equivalent to owning a business. If you owned a retail store, restaurant or other business and required potential employees to pay a fee for submitting their application you would limit your choice significantly. Quality employees would look elsewhere and your business wouldn’t perform as you would expect. Requesting a fee for the application to rent would provide the same results, and a tenancy that wasn’t what you expected.  

Landlords should take the appropriate time to thoroughly investigate each applicant's suitability for renting their property, in a manner which is in accordance with the Residential Tenancy Act. Failure to adhere to Tenancy Laws in BC often creates issues between Landlords and Tenants.  

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