Renting Your First Place in Ontario as an International Student: No Credit, No Guarantor, No Problem

You need credit to rent, but you need an address to build credit. Here is how to break that loop the legal way — and how to spot the moment a landlord’s demand crosses from tough into illegal.

I’m Arthur Zhao. Over the years I have represented landlords and helped plenty of just-landed students and families find that critical first place, and I can tell you the biggest obstacle for a newcomer is rarely money — it is an information gap. You do not yet know which demands are normal practice and which are simply against the law, so you go along with whatever you are told.

The classic line is: “You have no Canadian credit, so you will need to prepay six months or find a local guarantor.” I understand a landlord wanting to lower risk. But in Ontario, part of that sentence describes something a landlord has no right to force on you. This piece lays out the rules plainly — what a landlord can legally ask for, where you can legally say no, and how to build a rental application that speaks for itself when your credit file cannot.

The catch-22 — and why it is not the wall it looks like

The loop feels rigged: landlords want to see a credit score, but you cannot have a Canadian one until you have lived here and used credit here. So does a blank credit file sink you? No.

According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), a landlord may use credit checks, credit and rental references, and income information to screen applicants under O. Reg. 290/98 — but must consider all of it together, never one item as a veto. More importantly, the OHRC states that treating a lack of Canadian credit or rental history the same way as a negative history is discriminatory where that gap is linked to your place of origin (grounded in the Ahmed v. 177061 Canada Ltd. case). In other words, the law already recognizes that your empty credit file means you are new — not that you cannot pay.

The document pack that replaces a credit score

You do not have a Canadian score, but you have plenty of other proof that you are reliable. Before you land, scan these into one clean PDF: your offer / admission letter, study permit, passport, and proof of funds (bank statements, a GIC certificate, or a paid-tuition receipt), plus a bank statement or credit report from your home country and a reference letter from a previous landlord. Add any scholarship or funding award. Because the OHRC requires a landlord to weigh income alongside everything else, a complete, well-organized pack is the single strongest “credit” you can present — often stronger than a thin Canadian file would be.

Deposits, decoded: the only two a landlord can legally take

This is where newcomers get overcharged most, so be precise. In Ontario a landlord can legally collect exactly two things up front: a last month’s rent deposit, capped at one month’s rent and usable only toward your final month (never for repairs), and a refundable key deposit limited to the actual cost of replacing the key. That is it. Anything labelled a “security,” “damage,” or “cleaning” deposit is illegal here. One detail worth knowing: that last-month deposit earns you interest each year at the rent-increase guideline, which for 2026 is 2.1% — the landlord owes you that, per Ontario’s 2026 guideline.

The lines that cross from “tough landlord” into illegal

A demanding landlord is not the same as an unlawful one. Here is where the line sits. Prepaying rent: a landlord cannot require you to pay several months in advance to get the unit — the OHRC notes newcomers are sometimes asked to prepay up to 12 months, and calls that illegal. Guarantors: asking for one can be legal, but not if you are singled out for it because you are a newcomer or foreign — that is discrimination based on place of origin. Payment method: under RTA s.108, a landlord cannot require post-dated cheques or automatic debit; you may offer them, but you cannot be forced. Income ratios: refusing you because rent exceeds a set percentage of your income (the “30% rule”) breaches the Code — the courts settled this in Kearney v. Bramalea. Recognizing these is not being difficult; it is knowing the statute.

The standard lease (Form 2229E) is your best single protection

Since April 30, 2018, most private residential units in Ontario must use the government’s standard lease, Form 2229E (agreements signed on or after March 1, 2021 must use the December 2020 version). If a landlord hands you a homemade lease, you can request the standard one in writing, and they have 21 days to provide it; if they miss that deadline you may withhold up to one month’s rent (you resume once you receive it). When you review it, check the rent amount, which utilities are included, and whether any “additional terms” conflict with the law — an illegal clause is void even after you sign it.

Start building Canadian credit from month one

Renting is step one; the goal is that next year is easier. Once you have a place, open a chequing account, apply for a student or secured credit card, put a small recurring charge on it, and pay it in full every month — that is what actually creates a Canadian credit file. Keep records of on-time rent payments too; some rent-reporting services and future landlords will accept them as a reference. Twelve months of quiet, on-time history turns the very question that stumped you this year into a non-issue the next.

📘Complete GuideFirst-Time Renter Guide →

Arthur Zhao

Real Estate Broker · FRI · ABR · SRS · PSA · MCNE · E-PRO · CLHMS & GUILD Elite · REAIS

VP & Branch Manager, Bay Street Group Inc.

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