If you want Toronto Tenants, you need to ask the Right Tenant Questions....
You may not ask
Do you want Kids?
What is your ethnic back ground?
Are you Gay or Lesbian?
What is your religious Back ground?
Or you will land at the Human Right Tribunal.
You may ask
What is your income?
Where do you work?
How many people will be living here and what are their names?
Do you have pets?
Do you smoke?
Will you be operating a home based business?
What do you do when you can't sleep?
You could ask;
Tell me about yourself and watch their voluntary disclosures.
Remind them you need references, a credit bureau and you will be making enquiries.
Ask for a Social Insurance Number.
You can ask for First and Last Month's Rent
No Key Money
No Security Deposits
No Cleaning Deposits
No 3, 4 or 6 months in advance because they are new to Canada.
Because THEY [your prospective tenants] even if they agree, cannot be held to comply with what is illegal with the Landlord Tribunal. A Tenant application at the Tribunal will result in all of those deposits / charges refunded immediately.
Additionally, rather than sour the NEW relationship with your landlord where Toronto has a 1% vacancy factor; If the landlord asks for money in excess of what is allowed, IE NSF charges, Service fees to shovel snow or cut grass, fees for repairs to appliances, SAVE those receipts and deduct them from your second last months rent.
Better to have a place to live and a Good Landlord relationship.
More details can be searched at http://www.ltb.gov.on.ca/en/
What can a Landlord ask you?
Hi dpylyp,
Thank you for this informative post ! 
Priscilla
Just to correct a few factual errors,
Your Social Insurance Number (SIN) is confidential information and should only be provided to other government agencies and your employer or new employer (only after being hired). In fact, it is a criminal offense to ask for one's SIN under any other conditions. You should never supply your SIN for rental purposes, credit card applications, etc.
Regarding asking about your income, in Ontario there are very special restrictions on what can and can't be asked under the Ontario Human Rights Act. Don't just assume that you must provide details of your income to anyone.
In Canada it is an offense punishable by law to ask questions for the purposes of rental of property or even job applications that relate to, marital status, whether or not you have or intend to have children, sexual orientation, religion, racial/ethnic origins, disabilities, health problems or any other thing that could be the source of discrimination,
Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team
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