Renting to Intl Students in Ontario

[Joanne Wood]

Any advice? Yay? Nay? Thoughts?

[George W.]

Originally posted by @Marko Agbaba:

Originally posted by @George W.:

Originally posted by @Greg Gangle:

I came across a colleague that owns a rental near Fanshawe College and she only rents to international students and have their parents co-sign. She said it works perfectly. Hope this helps.

 I don't understand how having the parents of international students co-sign will help in anyway? If the student decides to stop paying rent, destroy the property and hop on a plane back home, what are you going to do? Summon the parents in India to small claims court?

You're absolutely right @George Wang . There is no point in having an international guarantor co-sign the lease as pursuing legal action for missed rent payments or damages are essentially impossible with them. What I suggest instead, is to receive a larger deposit during the signing of the lease. Instead of last months rent you should take the last two or three months of rent up front as a result of not having a Canadian resident co-sign.

I hope your tenants have poor English and are not here to study law because it is NOT legal to keep more than last month of rent as a deposit. It will land you a visit to the LTB tribunal, you'll have to pay it back plus a fine.

Prepaid rent ahead of time is a different story though. But you have to use it up at the beginning of tenancy rather than using it as a deposit at the end. And even this is a very fuzzy dangerous line to go this route. You will need very carefully written clauses to protect you.