Your guide to liv.rent’s verification process

Rental scams have become a pressing problem facing Canada’s renters and landlords, and verification is one way of combatting this growing risk. For renters, browsing listings that have already been manually verified eliminates guesswork and saves you time, and messaging verified landlords ensures you’re not dealing with a fake profile. For landlords too, tenants who verify their identity and income help save time and prevent against scams like professional tenants. How do you get verified though, and what makes liv.rent such an effective way to protect yourself from rental scams? We’re sharing all you need to know about liv.rent’s rental verification process and how they can help you find your perfect home or tenants quickly, safely, and securely.

What is rental verification?

Rental verification is a safety and security measure designed to confirm the validity of listings and user profiles in order to protect users.

This is typically done by checking landlords and renters’ identification documents such as passports, drivers’ licenses, or other types of government-issued photo ID. For property managers, identity and professional status are typically confirmed by checking their license.

In the past, this is something that landlords and tenants would have had to do themselves if they were wary about engaging with the other party. Now, liv.rent has made rental verification process simple and easy by manually verifying profiles and listings and displaying this with a convenient verified badge.

Why does liv.rent ask for verification?

At liv.rent, we are dedicated to building a trusted rental community and protecting both renters and landlords from rental scams through strict verification measures. To achieve this, landlords and property managers on liv.rent can verify their identity by uploading the required documents. Renters can also verify their profile through the Trust Score, by providing proof of their income and verifying their social media profiles.

Our team manually validates information from external sources (government-issued IDs, land titles, or other official documents) to confirm the identity of users and to check the validity of listings. When verifying profiles, we also ask for a user-uploaded selfie in order to corroborate users’ identities.

Rental scams in Canada have become all-too-common, with rental scams increasing in frequency by 160% since 2021. Renters losing cash deposits to fraudulent listings and landlords’ homes being listed without their consent are just two of the many common rental scams that exist today. To safeguard our rental community and reduce the risk of scams, we have made it our mission to eliminate identity and financial theft in the rental scene with strict rent verification.

These verification measures help prevent rental scams and fraud, so that our community can rely on the safety and integrity of our platform to find reliable rentals and leverage all the other benefits and features available within the liv.rent app to rent stress-free. Renters — you can browse for verified listings near you to rent safely and easily, and landlords — liv.rent’s rental verification process ensures you find the right tenant the first time.

What does it mean to be verified on the liv.rent platform?

Being verified on liv.rent means heightened credibility either as a landlord or a renter. For landlords, it also means that your listing is more likely to receive applications and get rented faster, with over 70% of liv.rent users clicking into verified listings as opposed to unverified ones. 

Once the rental verification process is complete, the user or listing will receive a verified badge. This helps our community identify the verified users and listings on our platform with ease. 

	This icon means users are ID verified. Users with this icon next to their name indicate that their profile name has been matched to a piece of government-issued ID that they submitted.
	This icon means rental listings are listing verified. Listings with this icon next to the address indicate that the rental property has been verified by mail or by matching the landlord’s name to official documents, such as land title documents or property tax forms.

Why should you be verified on liv.rent?

Not only does getting verified help keep your fellow members of the rental community safe, but there are also more practical benefits to verifying your profile and listings as well. Verified renters are 77% more likely to secure a rental as they are more likely to be deemed reliable and desirable, thus increasing their chances of securing the perfect rental. 

Verified landlords are more likely to attract good tenants as they receive 3X the inquiries than unverified landlords, and verified listings receive 5X the engagements compared to unverified listings.

How are renters verified on liv.rent?

Here’s liv.rent’s rental verification process for renters:

1. Phone number/carrier verification – When a user signs up, we verify the phone number to their carrier. If a number is flagged as spam or suspicious, our team is notified to investigate further.
2. Tenant ID – Government-issued ID is required to verify every user profile. When users upload a picture of their ID, we cross-reference the names on the ID and their profile to ensure they match. Once the verification process is complete, our system immediately removes the government-issued ID and all copies of authentication information in a secured manner.

Refer to our step-by-step tutorial here.

PRO TIP: Make sure your profile name matches the name on your ID. If you have a preferred name, be sure to fill out that field!

While it may seem like a lot of steps to get verified, it’s actually very simple.  Renter verification improves your Trust Score, which is part of your Renter Resume and helps your rental applications stand out from other renters’.

While you don’t need to complete your profile to become verified, you will need to complete your profile in order to start applying to your favourite listings. To do so, you will need to upload evidence of employment and income. Valid proof includes bank statements, pay stubs, tax statements, and letters of employment.

See more on how to apply to multiple listings with just one Renter Resume here.

How are landlords verified on liv.rent?

Here’s how landlords are verified on liv.rent:

1. Landlord ID – We verify landlords’ and property managers’ ID in one of two ways:
   1. Government-issued ID – When users upload a picture of their ID, we cross-reference the names on the ID and their profile to ensure they match. All pictures of IDs are securely removed from our system once the verification process is complete.
   2. Business license – We verify property managers’ and landlords’ business licenses with the City of Vancouver’s open registry of businesses as well as the Real Estate Council of British Columbia. Valid business and property management licenses are accepted.
2. Listings – We have a dedicated liv.rent team that manually checks and verifies each listing. There are two options to verify listings. Any suspicious or duplicated listings are flagged and hidden until one of the following occurs:
   1. Verify by documents – Official documents accepted include land title documents and property tax forms. For property managers and other landlords representing the property owner, representation documents are also accepted.
   2. Verify by mail – Alternatively, landlords can request for a postcard to be sent to the rental property. The postcard includes a code that the landlord can enter into the app to verify the listing.

In order to verify a listing by document, landlords will have to verify their ID first as we match the verified profile’s name to the documents.  

Refer to our step-by-step tutorial here.

Why does liv.rent ask for so much information?

Renters on liv.rent are always in control of their personal data. Your renter resume and Trust Score are the only things visible to landlords on our platform — you control when and what they get to see. Here is what your basic renter resume would look like to landlords:

Once you’re ready to apply, you can send an application to the landlord. At that time, the landlord can now see your full renter resume.

All the data you provide is the minimum required information that a landlord would need in your rental agreement. We simply digitized the process to make it easier and save everyone some paper, too.

Here’s a quick look at what information a landlord can legally ask from you:

Identifiers	Background Information	Financial Information
Name	Employment History	Credit Score
Date of birth	Educational History	Income and financial resources
Current and former addresses (business and personal)	Criminal Information	Debt information
Email address	Pet Information	Bank account information
Social Insurance Number (SIN)	Personal References	Rent payment information
Driver’s License Number	Emergency Contact Information	Financial information

Your personal information is safe with us and we treat it with the utmost respect.

How does liv.rent protect my data?

We apply strict precautions to protect the security and integrity of your personal information, both during transmission and storage. Transmissions of personal information through the Website are encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL), and all personal data stored on liv.rent are secured with AES-256-CTR (similar to military-grade encryption).

In regards to your government-issued ID and any authentication information requested during liv.rent’s verification process, our system will immediately remove all copies in a secured manner once you have been verified. This ensures that none of your personal data will be made public.

FAQ: liv.rent’s rental verification process

What is rental verification?

Rental verification is a process or series of processes designed to confirm a renter’s or landlord’s identity, or other information such as their employment history, income, and so on. Rental verification can also refer to listings, where some measure is taken to verify the property’s address and ownership status.

How does rental verification work?

On liv.rent, landlord profiles are manually verified by our team to confirm their identity. This is done by comparing a user-uploaded selfie against a piece of government-issued photo ID to determine a match, Renters must also prove their identity in the same way, with the option to upload documents to support their stated income and social media profile verification as well.

For listings, landlords may either upload property ownership documents such as land title documents or property tax statements, or enter a one-time code mailed to them within a postcard.

How to get rental verification?

Rental verification is available to all users. Both landlords and renters will be encouraged to complete their profile and get verified when proceeding through the account creation process. Users can easily see whether a landlord, tenant or listing is verified with convenient verified badges.

Is liv.rent legit?

Yes! liv.rent is not only legit, but we have measures in place to protect user information and data — including storing information with military-grade encryption protocols, and deleting vital information and documents as soon as it’s no longer necessary for verifying your profile or generating a Trust Score.

You can read more about our data privacy policy here.

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