After hours of searching, you finally find the perfect apartment and it’s available for your move-in date! But when it’s time to sign the lease, the landlord asks you to pay a $1,500 security deposit to cover potential damage. “It’s common practice and everyone usually asks for one,” they say. But is it legal?
It’s illegal to require deposits
Your landlord isn’t allowed to ask you for a security deposit, no matter the amount or the reason. If they do, you can refuse. If they insist, you can turn to the housing court of Quebec, called the Tribunal administratif du logement or TAL.
When you sign a lease, your landlord is only allowed to require you to pay the first month’s rent in advance. Asking for several months of rent or any additional amount is not allowed.
Deposits are only legal if they’re voluntary
Although your landlord can’t require a deposit, you can choose to offer one yourself. But be careful! This is only allowed if you make the deposit voluntarily, out of your own free will and without any pressure from your landlord. For example, your landlord cannot push you to make a “voluntary” deposit by hinting that you won’t get the apartment if you refuse.
In one decision, the TAL also stated that a voluntary deposit document prepared by the landlord is not valid if the tenant didn’t sign it freely. In that specific case, the document mentioned that the tenant was voluntarily offering to pay the landlord a $3,285 security deposit. But the judge concluded that it was not truly voluntary. The landlord had actually required three months’ rent in advance as a deposit. Feeling pressured, the tenant signed the document to avoid losing the apartment.