renting a house in Onatrio

ultra99 wrote: ↑ We went and saw a house to rent in person and met the landlord. We applied and the application asked for income, bank account, etc. Now our application got approved and the landlord asked for our driver's licenses. The lease is ready to be signed by us.

How can we vet the landlord? Nothing comes up on Google, their name or address "reviews".
Can we ask the landlord for a copy of their driver's license and proof of ownership?

What vetting do you want to do?
Once you move in you have them by their....
He needs.to.vet you because he is going to handover the keys to a majir asset.
You give him last month's rent and get full protection from Ontario rules. If you want you can ask for their ids and credit check too.. the request probably won't go too well by them.

budwizestest wrote: ↑ What vetting do you want to do?

Ensure they are in fact the actual landlord and not someone showing a rental property from an AirBNB rental or another tenant subletting and keeping the rent.

The local land registry office should be able provide the information of who the actual owner is.

ultra99 wrote: ↑ We went and saw a house to rent in person and met the landlord. We applied and the application asked for income, bank account, etc. Now our application got approved and the landlord asked for our driver's licenses. The lease is ready to be signed by us.

How can we vet the landlord? Nothing comes up on Google, their name or address "reviews".
Can we ask the landlord for a copy of their driver's license and proof of ownership?

Not sure if you have rented in Ontario before but it’s usually the tenant who has to provide their photo id. Showing your photo id is part of the process. You are very well covered in Ontario as a tenant. If you owned a house would you not want to verify a persons documents? I mean sure you want to protect yourself and ensure you are not scammed as that does happen sometimes. The rental market for sfh is quite competitive at the moment some landlords would probably just move on to another application if someone started asking to see their ID etc. Some of them literally have dozens of AAA applicants ready to take their property.

As mentioned you have the greater protections as tenants. But landlords can be jerks in my experience. I have seen some crazy stuff in my time.

That said you only have to sign a one year lease, know the law (its available online), and don't get attached to the place.

Talk to them a bit to get a sense of what they are like, ask about their experiences as landlord for some context of how they do things and pay your rent on time and don't cause intentional damage. And ask them how they handle maintenance items, do they let things linger or do they fix them promptly. Every landlord will likely say they do promptly so ask for some examples.

In the end every decision carries risk but your the better covered party in the relationship. You can search RFD for landlord experiences and horror stories about how landlords have been screwed by tenants. Oh and make sure you have renters/content insurance.

ultra99 wrote: ↑ We went and saw a house to rent in person and met the landlord. We applied and the application asked for income, bank account, etc. Now our application got approved and the landlord asked for our driver's licenses. The lease is ready to be signed by us.

How can we vet the landlord? Nothing comes up on Google, their name or address "reviews".
Can we ask the landlord for a copy of their driver's license and proof of ownership?

I remember renting 5yrs back in downtown and when we met to pay the deposit, my realtor requested the owner to bring their property tax records to validate ownership.
We met in person, showed them our IDs and they were equally friendly and didn't hesitate to show property tax papers etc.
In all both parties felt comfortable dealing with each other and we were glad we met in person for coffee and chatted a bit more about each other.

OP is correct. If you are going through a property management company or a real estate agent/broker to lease a property, then you fill out the proper forms and give them your information to be verified. If you go directly to the so called landlord, you have no idea if this person actually owns the property or if they are just a middle man or a scam artist. I have heard about scams relating directly to leasing from someone who claims to be a landlord and gets swindled their first/last month's rent. Always do your own due diligence.