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FINDING A PLACE TO RENT:

Based on Nova Scotia ’s human rights laws, a landlord CANNOT REFUSE to rent to you because of:

Ÿ         Age

Ÿ         Gender

Ÿ         Marital status

Ÿ         If you are pregnant or have kids

Ÿ         Sexual orientation

Ÿ         Religion, creed, or political belief

Ÿ         Race, colour, or ethnic, aboriginal or national origin

Ÿ         Physical or mental disability (like being blind and having a seeing eye dog)

Ÿ         If you receive social assistance or other government assistance

Ÿ         If you receive support payments from a spouse or former spouse

Ÿ         Disease or illness (like AIDS or HIV)  

A landlord is allowed to ask how much money you make. A landlord CAN REFUSE to rent to you if they think that your income is not high enough, or steady enough, for you to afford the rent. A landlord cannot discriminate based on the source of your income.

Landlords do discriminate based on all or any of these things. If a landlord

has multiple people interested in a unit, they may choose who they would like to rent to and will usually discriminate against people based on these things. Challenging this may be very difficult.

    Play their game. Dress up to meet a potential landlord. 

   Don’t tell a landlord anything that you think may bias them against you.

   Give a landlord phone numbers of people who seem to be responsible to vouch for you. 

   Be creative with references, but don’t lie.

If you think that a landlord is blatantly discriminating against you, tell the landlord that they are racist, sexist, etc. and that they are violating NS human rights laws, if you feel comfortable doing this. This probably won’t do anything to stop a landlord from discriminating against you, but at least it doesn’t let them off the hook. You can also file a human rights complaint through the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission (see Resources)

The information on this site contains general legal information only and is not intended to serve as a replacement for professional or other legal advice.  Further, this guide only applies to Residential Tenancies in Nova Scotia. 

Last updated: November 19, 2006.