What should I do if my landlord isn't registered?

Not with the province, as far as we found. We found no general registry or licence for long-term landlords in any of the nine provinces covered here. A few narrower rules exist: Alberta requires anyone managing a rental for the owner to be licensed by RECA, Saskatchewan requires a landlord with no home or office in the province to file a power of attorney with the Office of Residential Tenancies, and some cities, such as Toronto and Halifax, register certain rentals.

We found no provincial landlord registry to join, so we found no provincial rule broken by not being registered. Other rules may apply, though: renting without a registration or licence a city requires, managing someone else's rental in Alberta without a RECA licence, or a nonresident landlord in Saskatchewan carrying on business without filing a power of attorney. Short-term rentals are a separate case, with provincial host registration in British Columbia and Nova Scotia and a tourism licence for short stays in PEI.

For your tenancy, usually nothing changes. The province's tenancy Act still applies, and several of the Acts say their rules cannot be waived or contracted out of, so a lease clause generally cannot take your rights away; ask the tenancy office if you are unsure. Where a city or another law does require registration or a licence, enforcing it is up to that body, such as the city or, in Alberta, RECA. Keep paying rent, keep records, and apply to the tenancy office if the landlord breaks the tenancy rules.

There is no provincial register of landlords to look up, so check other things instead. Make sure you have the landlord's legal name and an address for notices, which most provinces require the landlord to give you. If you live in a city with a rental registration or licensing program, such as Toronto or Halifax, ask the city. In Alberta, if someone other than the owner manages your rental, check with RECA that they are licensed.

Report it to the body that runs the registration or licence: the city for a city program, and RECA for an unlicensed property manager in Alberta. In New Brunswick, if your deposit was never sent to the province, contact the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office. If the problem is with the tenancy itself, such as repairs, deposits or notices, apply to the province's tenancy office. See how to report a landlord for where to go in each province.

No, as far as we found. We found no registry of long-term landlords at British Columbia's Residential Tenancy Branch, and the province's only rental registry covers short-term rentals. We found none at Manitoba's Residential Tenancies Branch either. In both provinces, the Branch handles tenancy disputes, and your landlord must follow the Act.

This applies in New Brunswick, where the landlord must send your security deposit to the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office within 15 days, and the office mails a Certificate of Deposit to both of you. If you never got a certificate, contact the office, because failing to deliver a deposit is an offence. You can also pay a deposit directly to Service New Brunswick yourself. In the other provinces covered here, we found no deposit registration, and the usual return rules apply; see whether you get your deposit back.

We found no rule that requires a residential lease to be filed with a tenancy office. In Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador, oral and implied agreements are covered by the Act too. Registering a very long lease on a property's land title is a property-law question outside the tenancy Acts; ask the land titles office or a lawyer if that applies to you.

We found no provincial landlord registration to apply for, so focus on the rules that do apply. Ask your city whether it registers or licenses rentals, and in Alberta use a RECA-licensed property manager if someone else will manage the rental for you. In New Brunswick, send each tenant's deposit to the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office within 15 days, and in Saskatchewan file a power of attorney with the Office of Residential Tenancies if you have no home or office in the province. For more, see how to become a landlord.

You still need a way to serve notices on them. In Saskatchewan, a landlord with no home or office in the province must file a power of attorney with the Office of Residential Tenancies, naming a Saskatchewan resident who can receive notices. In Alberta, the notice of landlord must give a postal address and physical location in Canada for documents. In Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador, the landlord's written notice must include an agent's details where the landlord uses one.

In six of the provinces covered here, yes: the landlord has to identify themselves to you. Alberta requires a notice of landlord within 7 days after you take possession, with the landlord's name and an address in Canada for documents. Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador require written notice of the landlord's name, phone number and an address for documents, or those of an agent. Saskatchewan requires an address for service and phone number in the agreement (within 20 days for an oral agreement), Ontario requires the landlord's legal name and an address for notices in a written lease (or in writing within 21 days for an oral agreement), and PEI requires names and addresses for service in the agreement. For British Columbia, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia we did not confirm a duty to give the landlord's name, so ask in writing and contact the tenancy office if the landlord will not answer.

We found no provincial registry or licence for long-term landlords in the nine provinces covered here, so we found no provincial application, processing time or landlord registration number to look up. We did not research processing times for the programs that do exist: Toronto and Halifax register certain rentals through their own city programs, and British Columbia runs a registry for short-term rentals only, where hosts display a registration number.

If a landlord quotes a number and calls it a landlord registration, SQRFT advice is to ask which office issued it and check with that office. What matters more for your rights is that you have your landlord's legal name and an address for notices, and how to report a landlord explains where to go if you need to complain.