Blog Image
Profile Image Verifile
June 28 2018

British Columbia Landlords Collect Unreasonable Amount of Personal Information from Tenants

British Columbia's acting information and privacy commissioner has found that landlords there collect too much personal information from prospective tenants.  Drew McArthur reached the conclusion after conducting an investigation that included collecting residential tenancy application forms from eight for-profit and five non-profit landlords, and rental management companies.
 
The investigation revealed that landlords were requesting marital status, sex, age, date of birth and social security numbers from tenants. In one instance, the landlord demanded a credit check, even though they offered to pay one year's rent in advance, and another cited the "Personal Information Reporting Act," which does not exist.