Pre-Screening Questions Every Ontario Landlord Should Ask Tenants

Legal vs illegal questions in Ontario

The Ontario Human Rights Code prohibits discrimination in housing on grounds like race, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship, family status, marital status, disability, age (16+), receipt of public assistance, gender identity, and sexual orientation. That does not mean you cannot screen. It means you screen on financial and tenancy-related criteria, not personal identity.

The simplest rule: ask about ability to pay, intended use of the unit, and tenancy history. Do not ask about family composition, country of origin, religion, or source of income beyond confirming it is sufficient and verifiable.

A safe question set you can copy

This is the script most operators settle on after a few months of inquiry volume. It works across WhatsApp, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, and SMS, and it filters out non-serious leads quickly.

• What is your target move-in date?
• How many people will be living in the unit?
• Are you currently employed or self-employed, and is your monthly income at least 3x the rent?
• Can you provide a recent pay stub or proof of income?
• Do you have references from your two most recent landlords?
• Are you comfortable with a standard credit and reference check?
• Do you have any pets, and if so what kind?
• Have you viewed the listing details, and do you have any questions about the unit?

Questions to avoid

These are the questions that show up most often in human rights complaints. They are also unnecessary because they do not predict whether a tenant will pay rent on time or care for the unit.

• Where are you from originally?
• Are you married or do you have kids?
• What is your religion or do you observe any religious practices in the unit?
• Is your income from a job or from assistance?
• How old are you?

Scoring answers without overthinking it

A simple three-tier score works for most landlords. Green means the applicant answered everything, hit the income threshold, has verifiable references, and matches the move-in window. Yellow means they answered most questions but something is missing or borderline. Red means they refused to answer, are far below the income threshold, or the timeline does not match.

Invite green leads to a showing immediately. Ask yellow leads one or two follow-up questions before deciding. Politely decline red leads without explanation beyond 'we are moving forward with other applicants.'

Making it repeatable across channels

The hard part is not the questions, it is asking them consistently when leads arrive on five different platforms at all hours. TenantBay's Inquiries module pulls WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS, and email into one pipeline, with AI-assisted replies that use the same screening script every time.

Once an inquiry scores green, it converts directly into a tenant record with the screening history attached, so the lease and rent setup steps inherit everything you already collected. That removes the re-typing that usually kills momentum between first contact and signed lease.