Rental Scams in Montreal

Where to report rental fraud in Montreal

If you have been defrauded on a Montreal rental, the Service de police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) directs victims to go to their neighbourhood police station or to call 911 to file an official complaint. Report the fraud even if the money is likely gone, because a police file number is often what a bank or e-transfer provider needs before it will investigate a reversal, and it creates a record if the same fraudster targets others.

Alongside a police report, you can submit the incident to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), Canada's national anti-fraud call centre and central fraud data repository. The CAFC does not recover funds directly, but the intelligence it collects supports law-enforcement investigations across the country. Reporting to both your local police and the CAFC is the standard advice for fraud victims in Canada.

Disputes about the tenancy or lease itself, rather than outright criminal fraud, go to the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), Quebec's housing tribunal. The TAL is the venue for recovering an improperly demanded deposit or challenging an unenforceable lease clause. Keep every ad, message, e-transfer confirmation, and draft lease, since both police and the TAL will ask for that documentation.

Verify the owner before you pay anything

A fraudster who does not actually own the unit cannot appear as its registered owner, so an ownership check is one of the strongest defences. The City of Montreal publishes its property assessment roll online through the Evalweb service, which lists the name and mailing address of a building's owner along with its physical characteristics and assessed value. You can look up a property using its civic address, and confirm that the person signing your lease matches the registered owner or a plausible representative.

For a deeper title check, Quebec maintains the Registre foncier du Quebec (Quebec Land Register), the province's authoritative record of real-estate ownership and registered charges. It is searchable by lot number, and it is the definitive source for who legally holds a property. If the name on a lease does not match either the Montreal assessment roll or the land register, treat that as a serious warning sign and do not transfer any money until it is resolved.

Deposit rules that expose most scams

Quebec tenancy law is unusually protective on deposits, and knowing it flags many scams instantly. Under article 1904 of the Civil Code of Quebec, a landlord may not exact any amount in excess of the first month's rent, and may not demand any additional sum in the form of a deposit or require payment by postdated cheque. The Tribunal administratif du logement confirms that landlords cannot require a security deposit, a damage deposit, or a key deposit as a condition of the lease. At Montreal's typical rents, that means for a 1,500 dollar one-bedroom, the most a legitimate landlord can lawfully require up front is 1,500 dollars.

This rule is the single clearest scam filter here. Any demand for last month's rent, a damage deposit, a cleaning deposit, or a wire or e-transfer to hold the unit before a viewing is either illegal or an outright fraud, and it contradicts what provincial law permits. A tenant may choose to offer a deposit voluntarily, but a landlord cannot require one, and a fraudster's pressure to send funds fast is precisely what the law forbids a real landlord from doing.