Cities like Vancouver and Victoria aren乌鸦传媒檛 the only ones suffering from snoopy landlords.
A month ago, my boyfriend and I got a taste of Kelowna乌鸦传媒檚 low vacancy rate as we searched for an apartment, competing, according to ad views, against hundreds of other potential renters.
The biggest shock wasn乌鸦传媒檛 the competition however, it was the feeling of being exposed.
A landlord who owned an apartment in the Lower Mission requested to see our social insurance numbers and annual salary.
Coming from smaller communities where the stakes weren乌鸦传媒檛 so high, we left more than a few blanks in our application as we refused to fill out optional requests for SIN numbers and 乌鸦传媒渞equired乌鸦传媒� questions of income.
A few weeks later, our application was deemed 乌鸦传媒渋ncomplete.乌鸦传媒�
According to Andrew Sakamoto, executive director for the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre, landlords shouldn乌鸦传媒檛 be asking for SIN numbers, banking information, credit cards, criminal records, or taking copies of driver乌鸦传媒檚 licenses.
乌鸦传媒淎 landlord is allowed to feel confident that a tenant will be able to pay their rent. They乌鸦传媒檙e allowed to ask permission to run a credit report,乌鸦传媒� he said. 乌鸦传媒淭he fact that landlords are asking for all of this personal information and tenants are providing it, is sort of a symptom of this rental housing crisis that乌鸦传媒檚 plaguing our society.乌鸦传媒�
Sakamoto also has a first-hand experience of dealing with the issue. He said he provided his SIN number to to a landlord in order to secure the tenancy.
乌鸦传媒淚 know a lot of other tenants in the same boat,乌鸦传媒� he said. 乌鸦传媒淲ith vacancy rates so low and competition so high, there乌鸦传媒檚 a lot of desperation for housing.乌鸦传媒�
According to acting deputy commissioner Bradley Weldon at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, landlords can only request 乌鸦传媒渘ecessary乌鸦传媒� information from a tenant.
乌鸦传媒淭here is no reason for a landlord to request more information with a reputable reference,乌鸦传媒� said Weldon. More information should only be requested if a reference isn乌鸦传媒檛 available and should be only required to determine if the individual is capable of paying the rent, he said.
乌鸦传媒淭he amount of information you collect, should escalate as you have reason to escalate it. But what we乌鸦传媒檙e seeing instead is one size fits all application forms that treat an individual who has a 10-year positive reference from a landlord乌鸦传媒he same as someone who has no background whatsoever and there乌鸦传媒檚 reason to believe they might not be able to make their rent payments,乌鸦传媒� he said.
The privacy commissioner is currently investigating both private and commercial landlords which was announced after the large number of inquiries it received about tenant privacy rights. The investigation should wrap up in about three to four months, said Weldon.
To access information on tenant and landlord rights visit www.oipc.bc.ca.
carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
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