On March 22, 2018 the Acting Privacy Commissioner of B.C. issued a report which substantially limited a residential landlord’s right to perform credit checks when screening tenants. The Acting Privacy Commissioner’s view was that a credit report was largely irrelevant to a residential landlord considering a tenant’s application to rent, and that landlords should not be allowed to perform credit checks on tenants except in unusual circumstances.
On April 9, 2019 Harper Grey lawyer, Michael Drouillard, traveled to Victoria to co-present a submission, on behalf of LandlordBC, to Michael McEvoy, B.C.’s new Privacy Commissioner. The submission urged the Privacy Commissioner to reconsider this finding and to issue a new report replacing the conclusions of the Acting Privacy Commissioner. Since then, the Privacy Commissioner has issued a new guidance document largely restoring a landlord’s right to perform credit checks when screening tenants to how it was before the March 22, 2018 report was published.
