Common renting practices that you might not realize are illegal

Editor's note (December 12, 2020): Post has been updated to include sources where available, and remove information where reputable sources were not found.

This blog post is based on a student's experience with rentals within the City of Oshawa. For up-to-date information regarding renting in Oshawa, please refer to the City of Oshawa's website. If you are an Ontario Tech student looking for off-campus living resources, visit Student Life's Off-Campus Living webpage.

Security deposit, key deposit or whatever rhymes with deposit

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I once thought that I found the *perfect* place. The room was fully furnished, had fast Wi-Fi, and the best part was that the housemates were awesome… until I started talking to the landlord and they asked for a $500 security deposit on top of the rent. The only legal "security" deposit a landlord can ask for is a rent deposit (Residential Tenancies Act, s105(1)).

The “Google Lease”

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This is less of a problem now that a standard lease agreement is required (and provided) by the Province of Ontario, but in the past, I found that a lot of my landlords would simply google “lease template” and got select one from a different part of the world that would barely be legal in the U.S, and definitely not legal in Canada. If you're not sure what to look for in your lease agreement, Student Life has a printable checklist on the Off-Campus Living webpage.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

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Many rental units, especially basement apartments, don’t have smoke detectors. This is either because the landlord is too lazy to install one, or they just don’t care enough. Working smoke alarms are required by the Ontario Fire Code.

Oh don't worry, this place has a permit

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All residential rental properties surrounding the university have to be licensed under the Residential Rental Housing Licensing By-law. I have only ever encountered this once, but my landlord flat out admitted that they did not have a rental license. Landlords make more money when they ignore this law – there’s a good chance if they are not abiding by this by-law, there are many other by-laws they are also breaking.

No dogs, no cats, no service

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