Offering 12 Months Rent Upfront
Based on this CBC Article: Toronto newcomers paying up to 12 months' rent up front to secure housing
Landlords can only legally request first and last months of rent, but they can accept more money if the tenant offers it.
Toronto's rental market is becoming increasingly inaccessible, especially for newcomers and young people. A growing number of people are finding themselves in a difficult position, often needing to pay several months' rent upfront to secure housing. This trend is driven by a combination of a low vacancy rate, high rental costs, and a lack of employment and credit history or references.
Many landlords in Toronto will not accept potential tenants who don’t “check all the boxes” unless significant collateral can be provided, usually in the form of an upfront payment, with some renters having to offer up to a year's rent in advance. This situation can exacerbate the financial strain on renters who are already grappling with the high cost of living in one of Canada’s most expensive cities. The situation is dire enough that many are forced to dip into their life savings.
While note a good situation for renters, landlords are doing this to protect themselves as potential renters often have just moved and have no employment, no credit history, and no references. A landlord must have assurance that the renters will pay the rent because it is nearly impossible to evict them afterwards because of the backlog at the landlord-tenant board - timely hearings would go a long way to fixing this (I’m hearing stories of hearings still taking 8-10 months when tenants are not paying rent).
If it wasn’t such a huge financial risk for landlords, they would be more willing to take a chance on candidates that are not “ideal" on paper, but given the current situation, a landlord would be a fool not to accept some form of security.
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