'''Non-profit housing''': If you live in non-profit or subsidized housing, you are protected by the ''Residential Tenancy Act''. This includes tenants living in single room occupancy hotels (SRO) operated by a non-profit society, municipality, or regional district. However, if your rent is based on your income different rules regarding rent increases and evictions may apply.
The ''Residential Tenancy Act '' does not apply to:
*people living in accommodations owned or operated by educational institutions if the institution provides the accommodation to its students or employees;
*if you live in a housing co-op and are a member of the co-op;
*a landlord should not demand a tenant’s banking information;
*a landlord cannot request a tenant’s credit card information as a condition of renting a property;
++ *requiring a criminal records check is not reasonablynecessary; and++ *a landlord may ask to examine a person’s driver’s licencein order to verify the person’s identity. However, thelandlord must not write down or photocopy this personalinformation. If a landlord refuses to rent to you because you didn’t providethis personal information, you have the right to reportthe landlord to the Office of the Information & PrivacyCommissioner for British Columbia. To read the full privacyguidelines, see the following link [http://www.tenants.bc.ca/main/?privacy www.tenants.bc.ca/main/?privacy]. ===Discrimination=== A landlord cannot discriminate against you or refuse to rent to you because of your race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, source of income, or age (over 19 years old). The landlord also cannot discriminate against you if you are married or not married, if you have children, or if you have a disability. '''There are two exceptions:''' '''Shared accommodation''': The law does not always apply when cooking, sleeping or bathroom facilities are shared.For example, if a woman wants to rent a room in her house only to another woman, she may be allowed to discriminate in this way. '''Adults only''': A landlord cannot refuse to rent to you because you have children, unless the building is reserved for people over 55 years old. It’s illegal for a landlord to advertise “adult only” or to write “adult only” in a tenancy agreement, unless the building is for tenants over 55 years old. ==Application fees==A potential landlord cannot ask you to pay a fee to simply apply to rent a place. If you pay an application fee and the landlord will not give it back to you, you can apply for dispute resolution to have it returned. At a dispute resolution hearing you can remind the dispute resolution officer that the application fee was collected from you illegally and should be returned. Of course you need to know thelandlord’s proper legal name and address and have proof that you paid the fee. Many potential tenants pay these fees in cash and do not know to whom they are paying the fees. Therefore, it is best to not pay an application fee and not rent from someone who asks for it. Take it as an indication of problems to come. (See also page 17 for application deposits.) '''See Section 15 of the RTA.'''''Italic text''
{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre]], 2012}}