Tenants and would-be renters face long lists of criteria and preferences that guard the entrance to housing like trolls.
Scrolling through Facebook and Craigslist postings there are plenty that include lengthy descriptions of an ideal tenant or roommate with rules about guests, age, gender, and cleaning habits.
In particular, one Facebook post required a prospective tenant and roommate to be at least 30 years old “willing and proactive about cleaning—including washing floors and the bathroom.”
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“A lot of the things these landlords are doing are unreasonable and unlawful,” says Vancouver lawyer Kyla Lee. “With the exception of communities that are age-restricted, landlords cannot prevent someone from renting based on age or gender, or any other immutable characteristic. This would amount to discrimination under human rights laws.”
Similarly, landlords are not permitted to impose unreasonable limits on guests under the Residential Tenancy Act, however, Lee says that there are certain provisions landlords are allowed to make. For instance, if a guest stays overnight often enough they may become a de facto occupant of the unit. “This would give the landlord the power to give notice to end a tenancy,” Lee explains.
On the other hand, there are cases in the Residential Tenancy Tribunal that deemed requiring guests “check in” infringed on privacy rights so Lee says that demanding a tenant pre-arrange guests would also likely violate that right.
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