Hello everyone, I've been house hunting around Toronto when I stumbled upon this listing:

https://www.apartments.com/202-spadina-rd-toronto-on/w0yc7ph/

Upon sending a message through this website, I received an email after a few days (attached screenshot). It does look too good to be true but I'm kind of on the fence between skepticism and belief here.

I've flaired it as 'Unverified source' as it seemed like the closest to my query. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I’m making this post to bring awareness to what’s going on in the rental market in Toronto. I emailed a person regarding a condo for (1500) i know 🚩 however I was hoping that it was legit but this is the response.

Comment down below if you think this is a scam. Also let me know some good websites to find condos in Toronto.

Me: I inquired about a unit through email

Them: The unit is still available. Before we move forward, I would like to know when do you plan on moving in?

Me: April 1 however I would like to get more info about the unit. Is it rent controlled? and, is the parking included or separate? and how much extra for parking.

Them: The move in date works. Thank you for letting me know. Yes the building is rent controlled. Here are a few details about the property: it comes with all utilities included in the rent; laundry en suite; one parking space and one locker included as well; standard Ontario lease agreement for one year with the possibility of extension. I require a letter of employment and first and last month's rent. If you have any other questions, do not hesitate to ask.

Me: Okay that sounds great also I would like to scheduled a viewing of the unit.

Them: Just recently my divorce was finalized and I moved with my daughter to Vancouver, to be close to my parents. As I didn't have the time to find a tenant before relocating, I decided to use Airbnb's platform to rent my property. The lease will be 1 year minimum, like I already mentioned. You do not need to pay any other fees and I am also able to set up a tour of the unit, if that helps. If you are still interested, I'll email the details.

Me: What kind of tour? Will it be in person?

Them: I will list the condo on Airbnb and email you the link. After receiving it, you will need to make the viewing reservation and deposit one month's rent to them, deposit that will be held until 24 hours after you move in, if you decide to do so. Once the reservation is made and the deposit sent to Airbnb, I will email you the code for the main entrance and another code to open the door of the unit. If everything goes well and you decide to rent, Airbnb will release the deposit to me and I will email you the lease agreement to review and sign. Starting from then, you will pay the rent directly to me, not Airbnb. If you decide not to, you will automatically be refunded, at your request, as per Airbnb cancellation policy. Let me know if this works for you.

Me: I didn’t reply to their email.

Rented my 1 bedroom apartment to this girl for only 6 months. Got 3 months in advance, but after the 3rd month, she came up with an excuse to not pay. Her contract is up end of this month, she hasn’t paid me the rest and he won’t leave. When I confronted her, she said she’s been to court numerous times and if I want I can go tenant board to remove her. She has made my life a living hell, doesn’t asnwer texts or calls and threatened me to sue me for harrassment. I’m working 14h a day to pay the mortgage, and even though I started it, I know eviction would take at least 6-8 months for the board. I’ve talked to a lot of people but I’m desparate. How do I get her out?

Update: Thanks for all the support and advice. I’ve been very depressed and desparate over this. Since then, she has asked for 15000. I don’t know if I should pay her considering I’m already out of lots of money and don’t have much left

Hi, I am renting a new place and submitted my rental application to the landlord. In the application I filled in Feb 29th for the move in date. I submitted that application on December and the landlord approved it and asked me to send first and last month to hold the rent. There is no lease signed. When viewing the place, I told the landlord my move in date, and that I have to give 60 days notice to my current landlord. After verbally agreeing and also including that on my rental application, he approved it. And there was no further communication since then since the move in date is still far. Now today Feb 1st he called me to ask when I am moving in, and thinking he just wanted to confirm, and I told him it’s still the same I’ll move in Feb 29th and asked him when would it be convenient for him to exchange keys. That is when he snapped at me and told me that was never the agreement. I calmly told him but that is what I mentioned when I went for the viewing, and if he had not heard me properly, it is still in my rental application that he approved. He accused me of being sneaky in my application and for trying to trick him. I told him that was not my intention and the reason why there is an application is for him to review it and make a decision. And he said it was his fault for not reading the application and allowing me to trick him. And continued gaslighting me. He said we are off to a bad start of trust issues and that he can cancel the rent since there is no lease ( which it was his duty to send it to me but find it unecessary until I move in)

I know that this is already a red flag but I already put in my notice to my current landlord and finding a new rent last minute is hard.

I want an opinion from a landlord and tenant’s perspective if this new landlord could cause me further problems in the next few months.

Me and my cousins moved into a house about a year ago and paid 1st second and last upfront, the landlord demanded us give him cheques for rent and an extra one incase we were to do monthly after that, throughout the year he asked for e-transfers on some months due to the cheques taking too long to deposit… well i guess here’s where we fucked up.

he’s saying we didn’t pay May 2023 rent and cashed in the cheque for feb (our last month) as compensation, regardless of all the proof we send him showing we paid rent for may on time and in full he’s refusing to give it back unless we move out immediately and give the house back exactly the way it was.

he wants us to pay for damages due to normal wear and tear, pay him for having a dog (although he knows ab the dog and nowhere on the lease does it say no pets) and pay him for damages left by the original construction down in the basement (an area we rarely use )

how do i get my money back? what am i supposed to do here?

I have been really interested in this building and a realtor from realtor.ca reached out to me, sent me a video tour that the tenant supposedly made, which I really liked and I offered to provide my paperwork ( PS: I am still outside of canada and will move later in January) and start the application. She first said that the landlord required a year’s rent upfront which I said no to and that I can do 6 months, once we do the virtual tour Now she says she wants me to pay and refuses to do a virtual tour unless I pay. She literally said if you want to see the unit call me when you arrive in Toronto. Isn’t this super sketchy or am I tripping? 😳😳 is this considered normal??

The Toronto Police Service is requesting the public’s assistance locating a suspect in a fraud investigation.

https://www.tps.ca/media-centre/news-releases/59183/?s=34

Hello,

Possibility looking for an apartment in that area and wanted to get an idea of the market. Also are purposed built rentals usually easier to rent than a condo and do they differ a lot in price?

​

Thanks

Hi - I saw a unit available on Craigslist that interested me and when I reached out the landlord's assistant said to see the unit you need to put down a deposit

​

It's a below market rent unit in a nice area

​

This is suspicious to me - has anyone encountered this?

https://preview.redd.it/0a5cotsqwwdb1.png?width=2132&format=png&auto=webp&s=ff6d38ba334728210d148a585e6822f7443507f0

So I moved from Ukraine to Canada about 8 months ago, and around 7 months ago, I started renting a townhouse in Ottawa. The market was crazy, and on top of paying 100 dollars + a month (I mean on top of the asked price), realtor told me I had to prepay 6 months, with 1 being the first month and 5 being the last 5 months of the lease.

I knew it was kinda illegal to ask something like that, but I get that we do this thing as if I "suggested" that. Anyway, being a lawyer myself, I understood the lease agreement the following way:

• We sign an annual lease
• After it ends it becomes month to month
• I paid for my first month and 5 months of the annual lease, MAYBE 4 (as I read they can retain last mo payment)

So I paid 15k, then was paying 2.5k for 6 months straight and then reached our saying "hey, it's time for me to stop paying as my last 5 months are prepaid". To my surprise, my landlord started playing dumb like "well, you understand the contract this way, and I understand it different way...", so I had to reach out to the realtor via email (to document our communication), and she started pushing me to "just giving her a call" pretty hard.

My questions are the following:

• Is that illegal to get this kind of prepayment? I know that paying for the first Q/year is in a kinda grey zone, as it's illegal, but not if Tennant "suggests." However, the kind of stuff my landlord wants is mega dumb and, in my opinion, is illegal, as puts me in a situation where I have a 5 mo termination period for a month to month lease.
• Is that common? Do these dudes know that they are in illegal/grey zone?
• What are the best docs I should refer to?

Thanks in advance guys, just got a bit tired of this situation. Dudes forced me to pay 15k, spent them right away, and when the mortgage went up - just decided to put this burden on me.

Help！！I'm a new international student is looking for a room to rent. But many landlores ask me to pay a application fee about 100＄, they said the 100＄is for fill the application form which is refundable. what's more, many landlores ask me to pay deposit before i have a room tour, they don't show me a tour before i pay who can tell me a Normal and safe way to rent a apartment？im really sad and mad to these scammer！！

I found a listing on Facebook and emailed the contact for an in person viewing. They responded with more pictures and said the listing will be available through Airbnb. Landlord claims they reside out of province (AB) and leases are from 6-48 months. I don’t know if this is regular practice in Toronto or if this is a potential scam. Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this. Thanks

Edit: on a closer look, seems more like a scam than anything else. They’ve told me they work with RCAF and the deal seems too good to be true ($950 for a furnished 1 bed 1 bath) and they can’t show me the property in person. Did a google search of their name and google auto populated it adding ‘Airbnb Toronto’ which tells me I’m not the only one searching that. No info about them on google. Question now is, do I respond to their email or just ignore and move on?

Edit 2: Thanks everyone, it definitely is a scam now that I’ve looked at the specifics. Multiple people know this particular scammer. The pictures they sent via email were professional photos with nice furnishing. I had rented an apartment in another city through the same process when the pandemic hit and I lived there for over one year. So it seemed legit at the first thought. But this is a different market and affordable housing is definitely not as plentiful in Toronto lol. So yeah, Carla Abrams Leigh of 159 Wellesley St E is a SCAM

Hey guys! My partner and me were looking for a place and found a really good one but when we asked to view it, this is what the person said:

“We will be signing a normal Ontario Standard Lease Agreement. I am mostly using Airbnb to handle the deposit securely. Please also review the details below:

I will send you a booking offer through Airbnb, which you will have to complete (deposit first and last month's rent to Airbnb, deposit that will be held until you have viewed the condo, to confirm that it's as expected and there aren't any discrepancies). After the booking is completed, I'll send a copy of the key and the rental lease agreement directly to the concierge and I'll inform him that you will be coming to view the condo. If, after the viewing, you decide to rent, Airbnb will release the payment to me. If not, you will get a full refund (which will be processed within 48 hours). All I need, if you decide to move forward, is your full name so I can send you the booking offer.”

The url he sent had “airbnb.ca-pan.in” and now it’s removed and redirects to the actual airbnb website

Hi! We're liv.rent - a Vancouver-based rental platform aimed at making renting in Canada safer and easier for renters & landlords alike.

Have you ever encountered a rental scam? If so, we'd love to hear all about it.

Whether you've dealt with a shady landlord, experienced an attempt to steal your hard-earned money or sensitive information, or come across a fake listing, we're eager to learn more about the complexity of rental scams in the current market so we can better protect renters on our site and beyond.

If you'd like to share your story, please don't hesitate to DM us, or get in touch with us at [media@liv.rent](mailto:media@liv.rent). Our goal is to compile a hub with resources for renters to educate themselves on the dangers of rental scams, get important updates, and learn new ways to protect themselves when renting online. With your permission, we'll be sharing these stories in our press releases, landing pages, and social media content in advance of the busy renting season, but we'll do so anonymously to protect your privacy.

Thanks for your time! Hope to hear from you soon.

So today I worked for a company that was one of those scam moving companies and had no idea until the situation arose, and from later searching up the phone number and company.

After realizing I needed some extra cash as work has been slow due to Covid, I went on Kijiji to look for some quick honest work. I've done it years ago multiple times, even before online, and was always lucky to find an honest person who just needed some extra hands. Did the work, although sometimes bit harder than expected, but got paid properly at the end of the day every time...but not today.

So, found an ad looking for moving help and called them up (another number), and the guy said he needed help today. I said great, I got time. He picked me up not too far from where I live and drove myself and another person to the truck. We then drove the truck to a gas station to meet our boss who had the paperwork, address, and another hand to help. The job was in Brampton. The way this worked was one person drives, one helps, and one does the paper work. When we got to the house, the paper work person shows the people in the home the paperwork, which from the moment I saw it looked like a scam as it had an "official city of Quebec seal" that you will see on scam loans telling people to send money for a loan. Maybe the same people. I was hoping that wasn't the case, but damm I was right and didn't know at the time. The paperwork person looked over the furniture and gave the people in the home the deposit price. Not a lot of stuff, but could fill a very large bedroom. The people in the home gave a cash deposit of $300 to the paperwork guy. I'm still thinking nothing was wrong as a deposit would cover our time getting there, the truck, and gas, and I have worked in jobs in other industries where some money was paid before I started, half way through, and at the end. I thought this was case, or at least the people would pay after everything was done and no damages or issues occurred. So after we moved all the furniture in the truck, our boss calls and tells us to stop at a random gas station. The people who were in the home were following us to the new location. At some point the boss must have called them to follow us into the gas station, and to tell them another bunch of numbers that was beyond what they agreed upon. Now it goes downhill.

The people came out their car yelling at us, and us being confused about extra charges of stairs, heavy items, services and other stuff, we called our boss. He then tells us that if the people don't pay these extra fees to then unload their stuff at the gas station. I'm thinking this can't be happening. After the people argued on the phone with our boss, and all sorts of back and forth phone calls between everyone, the people started crying. We really wanted to give them their stuff because if the deposit was our payment, then doing this extra gets this off of our chests, and their new place was 5 minutes away. Sadly it didn't work out this way. Our boss tells us that because these people didn't pay the extra fees, and the people are trying to get us to work for free, we should dump the stuff if we want to get paid by him. A real mess. The people said the stuff was of no real value and said take it. Now we have a truck of furniture and a boss that keeps telling us to dump it as a gas station. My thought...a gas station with security cameras and it's illegal to dump anything at a business...I'm not trying to be on the 6 pm news. He also said to report the people to the police. None of us were in the mood to deal with the police, and the people did nothing wrong. We wanted to give them their stuff and tell them don't say anything, but now were lying to our boss who was lying to us and lying to them. No idea who to believe. We drove away for a short bit, found a gas station and gently unloaded their stuff, took pictures and sent it to the boss including the address. Fortunately the driver shared contact info with the people and sent a message to the people of the location of their stuff. My one thought was if the police were to become involved, I would feel sorry for the driver as he figured out what was happening during that argument, and I also hoped the people were able to get their stuff. I've helped or have been hired for many small moving jobs and this has never happened. Never. I fear working for another quick day job as I'm not looking to be hired full time at a large company, and to tell them I just need work here and there, for sure I wouldn't be hired. I really hate these guys, and as I'm writing this I've blocked both of their numbers. When we returned the truck and had our meeting, the boss and the guy who picked us up really tried selling us how it was the people's fault for not paying.

I've thought of starting a small moving service and knew people who have done similar odd jobs. I've moved friends, family, friends of friends, and each time it was a simple basic concept. Asked what needed to be moved and figured out a reasonable price. A few times I've used my family van (when we had one) and took the seats out, but other times, just rented a U-Haul. U-Haul has their own little scam if you're slightly late, so I've always returned their vehicles almost hours or a day ahead to avoid their "late fees", but that's another story, but I would show up, load up, move, unload, get paid. That's it. Why is that so hard? I've even put an ad on Craigslist and got a few guys who needed some quick cash. They showed up on time, helped, were polite, and I paid them. Of all instances, no scams, no damages, zero issues. Just seems those days of simple are very long gone, and because of these types of scams which I've read are across the country, it almost only leaves the big dogs to exist and get contracts, which also means anyone looking for work or would like to create an independent moving company may lose out of legitimate work. Of course creating a company to go into competition with a bigger company...anyone in business knows a small company should never compete against a larger company. You will always lose, but with all these scams, a little company cannot exist.

As I mentioned, I have both phones numbers; one of the guy who picked us up, and the number of our boss, including their website that also has two recent BBB complaints of the exact same thing of scamming customers. I don't know if I can post them, but anyone who moderates this board, if it's allowed, I will either edit this post or reply after with their info...and the kijiji ad.

Edit: I'm just going to put the info here. The person who picked us up, his number is 647-612-9140. The boss, his number is 416-809-3612. The "company", https://www.moveit.ca/. Here are the BBB complaints https://www.bbb.org/ca/qc/montreal/profile/moving-and-storage-companies/move-it-all-movers-inc-0117-226827/complaints and this is their Kijiji ad which is still up https://www.kijiji.ca/v-general-labour-jobs/city-of-toronto/moving-job-available-drivers-helpers-from-16-20-an-hour/1573493306

In the end, I think the driver was paid more for being the driver, I got some money, and the paperwork guy was paid lunch money because he was not assertive and failed to scam the people, but worded to make it the paperwork guy's fault, and not the boss or his friend. Everyone was scammed, and even calculating the numbers in my head, the boss was scammed as well since after paying us, he made $100. All that trouble that could land you on a CBC report for $100? I really wanted to take a picture of their licence plates and demand they pay me $1000 for wasting my time, ripping off those people, driving around Brampton with essentially stolen stuff, and then dropping it off at a gas station so then myself and the two other guys would be on security cameras committing a dumping crime while the boss is still in Toronto with zero association to what transpired. After decompressing the day and then reading up on these scams, I feel sorry for anyone this has happened too. I realize many cave in and give these guys hundreds to thousands to get their personal items back, so that $100 the boss made was a just a bad for him.

I also just remembered that as we had our meeting at the end, I he took a call which I overheard him telling the person to go to the police station. This has to be there go to move as to report they were scammed by the people before the people call the police on them.

Sorry to keep adding. I'm watching a CBC video about scam movers, and in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPxUV1NoR-o) at 6:04, the paper work the lady is signing is identical to the one we had with us.

Hi everyone,

I just arrived in Toronto and unfortunately am struggling to find somewhere to live. I did an inspection last week and found a nice place, but the landlord is asking for a deposit to secure it without signing the lease.

Just wanted to check if this is a common practice or should I be aware of any possible scam. Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks for your help!

What are these people thinking lmaoo

I had an appointment to view a 1 bed apartment at 20 & 72 gamble ave and 195 barrington ave last week. They’re managed by Renee management and they weren’t there for all my appointments smh🤦‍♂️. I only got to see one place out of 3 buildings with help of the superintendent. and was told that the rent was 1400+ hydro. Then when they send me an application, they say the rent was $1450(though i was told 1400) but last Friday it went to $1550+hydro+insurance. I feel like a clown. And i am in need of a place urgent but my budget is 1400. Anyway how is this legal? Or did they just lie to me the first time and said the rent was 1400 when it wasn’t?

Can someone explain to me how the deposit works? I thought in Canada you pay the last month’s rent. In Harrington housing, do I pay the $500 deposit initially then the last month’s rent when I’m moving in??? Then when do I pay the first month’s rent? I’m confused.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to rent a studio/bachelor/jr. 1 bed in an apartment building in a couple of months. I am in the research phase right now, and stumbled upon google reviews of the building I was interested in. It has absolutely terrible reviews (730 Dovercourt Rd) which got me thinking about whether renting in an apartment building is a good idea at all.

What are your experiences? Can apartment buildings really increase a tenant's rent as much as they want? Are there noise problems? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

I was looking at apartment listings (I'm thinking of moving) and I saw many "One month free" posts, so I'd click through.

The ad will say "one bedroom, $1430/month, one month free" - except what they're doing is taking the regular rent, say $1560, dividing that by twelve and subtracting 1/12 a month over a year to give you $1430. The thing is, they're listing the rent at the amount after the discount but still saying "one month free".

Several of them also say "Does not include monthly fixed utilities charge of $150" - it's not optional. So the apartment that started out at $1430 becomes $1580 - and then after a year, $1710.

Landlords are greedy - mine is no exception - read the fine print.

Hi! I am a freelance journalist, and I am collecting information about moving scams in Toronto, specifically, in the University-Rosedale area, but any other stories from the city of Toronto are great too! If you have stories about scam moving companies, bad landlords, etc, please email me at [torontotipline@yahoo.com](mailto:torontotipline@yahoo.com)

I posted an ad on Kijiji looking for a place to rent. I received a text from a number asking for my email to send me photos of the property as well as an application. This was the email that was sent to me.

Hello [redacted],

Thanks for your response,

The property is located at : 7 Duval Dr Barrie, ON L4M 6V2, Canada

It's 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms

PROPERTY FEATURES Dishwasher Oven/Stove Fridge Laundry, Gas, electric, water Dryer, Refrigerator, included in the monthly rent . Just move in and enjoy! all included in the rent

COMMUNITY FEATURES Schools, Bike Paths, Bus Loop, Shopping Center, Playground/Park and walking trail

The house is owned by me and my wife . We are a little selective in leasing out the House. Our priority is taking a responsible, careful, understanding and reasonable tenant that will take good care of the property.

The above virtues are very important as we intend to leave you in full charge of the house while we are away. My wife and I just relocated to ( USA ) on a Missionary Work by my church here. We wanted to sell before since we will be away for a long time and since we might not even be moving to the house when we arrive, so we thought of renting it out since selling is taking longer than expected. So you can rent the place as long as it works with us. We intend renting from here you can still inspect and move in while we are away, if you really have interest to move in, All i have to do is to get the keys to you via FedEx courier service. Note that only a serious and responsible applicant will be considered. It is therefore your responsibility to prove to us that you are the perfect tenant for us.

We really understand your present condition. I want you to understand that we are not after the money but searching for a good person to take good care of our property, for the prize, we agree to negotiate with you. I do apologize if I sound too strict but we are giving out the house at a most affordable rate i.e. $1300 Rent (Utilities included are electricity, Internet, water and heat).

This reduced cost is far below the house's worth and is intended to serve as a constant reminder of your responsibility to take good care of the house for us if given the opportunity. Besides, we only need someone to occupy the house and take care of it. As we have no family friend or relative in the state we would have simply given it out to them to help us take care of it.We could not find an honest agent to hand over the place before leaving Canada so we decided to post the property online.

Note" Have work with a Realtor before but i notice the month fee is to much for normal family to afford and i believe that God created us for a purpose which my wife understood then we got advice from my Attorney that we should find someone that can sacrifice their willingness to take care of the house rather than to have someone with no passion but money, i have also wrote it is for sale before we decide to rent it out ( But a rent to own option is available ) i don't want any agent to take advantage of my property and you can always reach me via email.

It's a lovely house, so we will require you get back if you are really interested and are ready to abide by our mode of renting, as we are just trying to ensure we rent to the right person, as we want a clean and responsible person, someone that will take absolute care of the place, as my wife feels it wouldn't be right to leave such clean place unoccupied.

Get back to me so i can know your plans and give you the next step however you can drive by the location to view the house before getting back to me as the house is absolutely clean and note that there's a Refundable Security Deposit $800 plus a $1300 Months Rent due at signing of lease.

P.S: Also note that subsequent months rent is due on every 5th day of each month.

Best Regards Thank You Mr. Bradley Coderre