For cash-strapped rental hunters in Burlington, a recent listing posted to social media might have seemed like a refuge; a two-bedroom apartment, on the basement level but bright and newly renovated, for less than $1,300 — around half of the average listing cost for a two-bedroom nearby.
But that oasis was a mirage, says Jared Gardner, a GTA-based realtor who’d advertised the unit for roughly a thousand dollars more. He was stunned to discover his listing photos shared online by a profile he didn’t recognize, soliciting prospective tenants with a much more affordable and tantalizing price tag.
The photos were stamped with his brokerage’s name, Gardner says, and several would-be applicants reached out to check its legitimacy. Gardner confirmed the listing wasn’t theirs and reported it to the social media platform. By the time he spoke with the Star, the post was gone. But Gardner fears, in the throes of a housing crisis, that similar posts could lure those struggling to afford market rent to hand over their personal information or even rental deposits.
“Those individuals, if they give first and last, that might be their savings.”
Across the Greater Toronto Area, there is currently more rental availability after many years of low vacancy rates. But for tenants searching for a more affordable place to live, the pickings are still extremely slim, leaving renters to compete for what’s available. And it’s leaving them vulnerable; in 2024 alone, Toronto Police received 381 reports about alleged “rental scams.”
Schools like the University of Toronto warn incoming students about common ruses from hijacked ads — cases where real units are listed by someone who doesn’t own the home — to “phantom rentals,” where a posted home doesn’t actually exist. The consequences can be severe, including rental hunters handing bad actors sensitive information or losing money on deposits.
Here’s what legal, housing and law enforcement workers say you can do to protect yourself from scams during a rental search.
Know what’s out there, and stay cautious
Working at a legal clinic in South Etobicoke and others around the city, lawyer Benjamin Ries has heard his share of stories of clients who’ve “sent all their money to people who turn out to have no right to rent them the unit.”
Both he and Lee Webb, director of client services at the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights, see skepticism as a safeguard. “Being aware that it’s possible really does help, because then you’re going to be on the lookout for potential signs of a scam,” Webb says. To him, any unit priced “surprisingly low” is a red flag.
Other reasons to dig deeper can include unusual formatting or spelling in a rental listing, Webb says. He suggests checking if the property is listed on other platforms, and if there are any discrepancies, such as a different price tag or photographs.
Dania Majid, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, says she’s seen tenants “override” a gut feeling that something isn’t right about a listing out of desperation for a lower-priced home. Warning signs that a rental may not be legit, she says, include a landlord suddenly becoming pushier, changing their style of language, quickly sharing sad stories about their circumstances, demanding upfront payments or personal information, or suggesting an in-person showing wouldn’t be possible for reasons such as out-of-country travel.
Don’t ignore these signs, Majid says. “If your gut is telling you this is too good to be true or something’s not right, you should trust that … or at least do your homework before committing to the unit,” she says. “Desperate tenants make for easy prey.”
Dave Coffey, a financial crimes detective with Toronto Police, also highlights a sense of urgency as a red flag, warning against prospective landlords who push for money to change hands right away or before seeing a unit. “People need to really do more diligence than they ever had to before,” Coffey says.
Visit in person and verify ownership
Always visit a unit in person if you can, experts say, to verify that it is legitimate, appears as advertised, and the advertiser is in fact the owner.
Relying only on an internet listing puts a person at higher risk, Ries argues. “This is something that sometimes happens to people who are moving to Toronto from another country … it also happens to people who are in a hurry.”
Even if someone has access to a unit, Ries urges extra layers of caution — having spoken with clients who were shown a unit only to learn it was being sublet by a tenant, not rented by the original owner as they believed.
Coffey, the financial crimes detective, has seen multiple cases where someone has rented a short-term rental platform, posed as the owner to show it to prospective tenants and then collected rental deposits. “That’s a common one,” he says. Both he and Ries stressed that it wasn’t unreasonable to look for evidence of ownership, including doing a title search.
If, for some reason, a tenant needed to rent a unit without visiting in person, Ries suggests that turning to a reputable rental company or having a friend tour a unit on your behalf lowers the risk.
If renters are in Toronto, Webb points to options like checking tax records at the city’s archives to confirm ownership, or reaching out to a building’s condo corporation where applicable. Would-be tenants can also work with a licensed professional like a real estate agent while searching, Webb says — whose fees are often, though not always, covered by the landlord rather than the renter.
Gardner, the realtor, says in his experience, landlords paid real estate fees in the “majority” of cases. While he cautions that working with an agent might come with some restrictions, cutting out certain mom-and-pop listings or units from large rental companies that don’t want to pay extra fees, he suggests it as a layer of protection for would-be tenants at no additional cost to them.
Know where your money is going
When money is trading hands, Ries urges tenants to be sure they know at least the full name and address of the person they’re paying. Without that basic information, trying to recoup your deposit in the event something goes awry would be difficult, Ries says.
He and others recommend paying by more traceable means like a traditional cheque, with Ries warning against options like cash or bank drafts unless the tenant receives a receipt and were making the payment to someone “you can easily track down,” such as a rental company with an office in the building.
“Cash is always a red flag,” Gardner agrees. “Even an e-transfer, if you’ve transferred it out, there might not be any repercussion. I’m not sure how the bank would protect you, if it went to someone who was scamming you.”
Coffey agrees that paying in cash makes it especially hard to recoup losses, while also flagging requests such as a landlord asking for payment by cryptocurrency or gift cards. “Those are the currencies of fraud,” he says.
At the end of the day, the experts who spoke to the Star expressed sympathy for tenants navigating today’s market, with Majid observing that many scams seem to have grown more “sophisticated.”
To Gardner, this reality shouldn’t make tenants afraid, but more cautious.
“Be careful out there — because not everything is legit.”
