How to verify your income & employment on liv.rent

Verification is an essential part of our mission to create a safe & secure environment for both renters and landlords in Canada. As Canada’s safest rental platform, our aim at liv.rent is to promote mutual trust at every stage of the rental process, which we accomplish by manually verifying both listings and users on the platform – as well as income and employment for renters. This article will guide you through the ins and outs of the income & employment verification process, including why it’s such an important part of our commitment to safety, what types of information we require, and tips for ensuring your documents are approved.

Why liv.rent verifies income and employment

In an effort to stop fraudulent users and keep renters safe from rental scams on the liv.rent platform, our team carefully verifies user-submitted documents to confirm that each verified listing exists, and is owned by the landlord who posted it. To give landlords the same peace of mind, we ask that renters upload documents that establish key information such as their employment status and income bracket to confirm a match with what they’ve specified in their profile.

We believe that mutual trust is a hugely important factor that’s often missing from the rental process, and multi-layered verification measures are our way of ensuring both landlords and renters are protected at all times.

How we verify employment

The exact process for verifying your employment on liv.rent varies depending on your employment status. We ask for different documents for renters who are self-employed, students, employed, or unemployed, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the requirements for each category below to ensure you’re providing the necessary information.

In general, here are a few universal requirements for all employment verification documents uploaded to liv.rent:

• All documents must clearly display your full legal name
• If dated, the document must be from within the last 3 months, or the most recent tax year

Below, you can find a list of the documents we accept for each type of employment.

1. Self-employed

Self-employed individuals can verify their employment by uploading any of the following documents:

• Tax statements (this is the best, most accurate way to verify your self-employment)
• Business License
• Business Card
• A screenshot of your earnings dashboard (your full name & the date must be clearly displayed)

2. Students

You can verify your status as a student by uploading any of the following documents:

• Proof of enrollment
• Student ID
• Acceptance letter
• Statement of paid tuition fees (must be from the most recent semester)

3. Employed

For renters who are currently employed in various professions, whether part-time or full-time, you have the following options for verifying your employment status:

• Business Card (must contain employer’s name)
• Job Offer Letter (must contain employer’s name)
• Pay slip (must contain employer’s name)
• Tax statement (e.g. Notice of Assessment, T4)
• Bank statement (showing monthly deposits, matching salary bracket with employer’s name)

4. Unemployed

Renters are not asked to provide employment documents when they select the option that says they are Unemployed. 

How we verify income

To further establish renters’ ability to make rent payments in full and on time, we also request that you upload relevant documentation to confirm the income bracket specified in your profile. Renters are encouraged to keep in mind the 30% rule when applying to rent a unit – that is, they should be spending no more than 30% of their annual income towards rent.

When uploading their verification documents, renters can choose to select whether they have No income, Can prepay 12 months’ rent, or one of the various Salary brackets that matches their income. Regardless of which option you select, there are some general rules we ask renters to follow:

• All documents must display your full legal name (or the name of your financial supporter, if you’ll have help paying your rent) 
• If dated, the document must be from within the last 3 months, or the most recent tax year
• Monetary values must be displayed in either CAD or USD, or edited to indicate a conversion equivalent in CAD/USD.

Pro-tip: You can use liv.rent’s built-in markup tool to indicate this within the platform. When uploading your income verification documents, you’ll also find a link to a website where you can obtain current exchange rates.

There are also additional guidelines renters must adhere to, depending which income status they select during the verification process:

1. No income

Renters that specify they receive no income must still prove that they have sufficient funds to pay rent on time. Here are some examples of documents we accept to establish proof of funds:

• Student Loans
• Proof of financial Aid (from parent, guardian, etc.)
• Statements from a savings account showing regular deposits or a large lump sum
• Statements from investment accounts (with fast liquidity) 

Pro-tip: As a general guideline, we recommend that renters who specify “No income” be able to show a balance that meets or exceeds the minimum set by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada

2. “I can prepay 12 months rent”

For renters that select this option, we require documents that display enough funds to prepay 6-12 months rent. This can vary based on the rent price of the specific unit, in which case we generally defer to the Proof of Funds requirements set out by IRCC. For this option, we accept the same types of documents as above:

• Student Loans
• Proof of financial Aid (from parent, guardian, etc.)
• Statements from a savings account showing regular deposits or a large lump sum
• Statements from investment accounts (with fast liquidity) 

3. Various salary brackets

For renters who select one of the provided salary brackets for their annual income, we require documents that clearly show proof of funds that matches the amount specified. Here are some examples of accepted documents:

• Tax statements
• Pay stubs
• Job offer letters
• Bank statement showing monthly deposits matching salary bracket with employer’s name 

Common reasons we decline income & employment verification documents

Each month, our team analyzes over 2,000 user-submitted documents as part of our effort to uphold our strict verification standards. On average, 35% of those documents are declined, or need to be amended for various reasons.

To ensure that your verification process is as smooth & easy as possible, here are some of the most common reasons we must decline income & employment documents:

General reasons for rejecting documents

1. The document doesn’t display the renter’s full name/match the name on their profile  
   • For renters who indicate that they are a student, we reject documents if there is no markup or letter indicating that their parents will be financially supporting them
   • We also reject documents that display the spouse’s name (if the spouse is the only provider)
   • The name on the document is not displayed in English 
2. The document isn’t recent enough (from within the last 3 months or the most recent tax year) 
3. The document does not display the required information to establish income or employment 
   • Income isn’t clearly proven within the document 
   • e.g. Job offer is cut off, deposits are not shown, or only one invoice is shown for renters who state that they are self-employed  
   • Employment isn’t clear proven within the document 
   • The document does not clearly display a place of employment matching what was specified in their profile 
4. Different employers are indicated between income and employment documents 

Reasons for rejecting income verification documents

1. The document doesn’t match the specified income bracket
   • Documents don’t display sufficient funds when the renter selects ‘no income’ or ‘I can prepay 12 months’ rent”
   • The renter uploaded a T4 for a job that began partway through the year and doesn’t reflect their full salary  
2. Income isn’t clearly proven within the document
   • The document doesn’t display dollar amounts CAD/USD  
   • Bank statements show proof of funds in a different currency 
   • Pay slips from the tenant’s current job abroad are provided in a different currency 

Pro-tip: If you aren’t keeping your job after moving to Canada, you should select the “Unemployed” option instead

Pro-tip: In this case, renters should select one of the other two options and send the same document with the lump sum

1. A cheque was uploaded with no date range specified – this is often the case with self-employed renters
2. Bank statements show various payments that don’t adequately reflect the specified income bracket
   • e.g. A self-employed renter uploading bank statements that show various payments, not indicating a stable amount received each month. In this case, we would require the renter to upload tax statements instead.

How liv.rent protects your 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.

Questions about liv.rent’s verification process? You can read more about how and why we verify users in an article here, or get in touch with us at support@liv.rent with any questions, comments, or concerns.

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