What we check
Every source, named. Every finding, explained.
Here's what a tenant screening report from RentKey includes: identity verification, a tenant credit check, sanctions and watchlist screening, law enforcement, court and eviction records, and an optional RCMP CPIC criminal record check. Every finding shows where it came from — never a bare pass or fail.
RentKey screening at a glance
01 — Identity
Government ID, matched to a live face.
RentKey reads the applicant's government photo ID — passport, driver's licence, or a permanent-resident or Green card — with document OCR, then asks for a live facial scan. The two are matched, so the face has to belong to the document, not just resemble it.
Liveness detection and tamper and replay checks rule out photos, screens and altered documents. The step runs on the applicant's own phone with no app to download, in about three minutes. The scan itself is deleted within a day of the match — only the result and a signed verification hash are kept.
What you'll see on the report
Verified Document read, face matched, liveness confirmed.
Needs review Match confidence or image quality too low to confirm automatically.
02 — Credit
The full bureau file, not a summary.
Every report includes a full bureau credit file — score, open and closed tradelines, collections, utilization and payment history — pulled through licensed screening partners in Canada and the United States.
The pull is requested with the applicant's consent, in the same flow used to verify their identity. A SIN or SSN is optional: it only speeds up bureau matching, and under Canadian privacy law a landlord cannot require one.
What you'll see on the report
File found Score, tradelines and payment history shown in full.
No file found Bureau has no file for this applicant — noted on the report, not treated as a decline.
03 — Sanctions
Every list a regulator expects you to check.
Sanctions and watchlist screening runs on Crown Intelligence, RentKey's in-house screening engine. It checks the applicant against OSFI's consolidated list, the OFAC SDN list, the UN Security Council consolidated list, and politically-exposed-person registers.
Matching runs on name, alias and date of birth together, and every hit — including a likely false positive — carries a match-confidence score, so you can see how sure the system is before you decide anything.
What you'll see on the report
Cleared No match on any list.
Possible match Name, alias or date-of-birth match, with a confidence score attached.
04 — Law enforcement
International notices, matched to a verified identity.
RentKey checks Interpol Red Notices and FBI wanted lists against the identity that was just verified, not a name someone typed into a form. That matters for applicants with no footprint in domestic databases.
What you'll see on the report
No match Not listed on Interpol or FBI notices.
Possible match Matched identity flagged, with the source notice named.
05 — Courts & evictions
Eviction records and tribunal decisions, across Canada and the US.
In Canada, RentKey searches Landlord and Tenant Board decisions in Ontario and other provincial tribunals, along with CanLII and, in Quebec, SOQUIJ. In the US, it searches county and national eviction records.
Coverage depends on what each province, state or court publishes. The report states exactly what was searched for that applicant, so you know what you're seeing — and what you're not.
What you'll see on the report
No records No tribunal decision or eviction filing found.
Record found Shown with the court or tribunal, date and outcome.
06 — Criminal record
An official RCMP CPIC search, in the regulator's own words.
The enhanced criminal record check is part of the Complete package. In Canada, it's an official search of the RCMP's national repository — CPIC — run through an accredited partner and reported in the RCMP's own wording. In the US, it's a national criminal and sex-offender registry search.
A clear CPIC result reads exactly as the RCMP states it: “no criminal conviction record found.” A possible match reads “a record may or may not exist,” and fingerprint-certified disclosure is available from there.
What you'll see on the report
Clear result Reported exactly as RCMP CPIC states it: “no criminal conviction record found.”
Possible match “A record may or may not exist” — fingerprint-certified disclosure available next.
How results are shown
A finding is a disclosure, never a bare “fail.”
Every hit, in every section, is itemized the same way — so you see exactly what was matched and can judge it yourself.
Designating authority
The exact court, tribunal or agency behind the finding — never just “a record.”
Matched name & aliases
The identity the record was matched against, including any aliases on file.
Nature of the record
What the finding actually is, described in plain language.
Date
When the record was entered or decided.
Match-confidence score
How sure the match is — shown every time, not only when it's low.
The regulator's own wording
CPIC results are reported exactly as the RCMP states them, not paraphrased.
Questions
About coverage and consent.
Does coverage vary by province or state?
Yes, mainly for court, tribunal and eviction records, and for the enhanced criminal check. Not every province or state publishes the same records in the same way. The report states exactly what was searched for that applicant, so you know what's covered and what isn't.
What about false positives on common names?
Sanctions, watchlist and law-enforcement matching runs on name, alias and date of birth together, and every hit carries a match-confidence score. A likely false positive on a common name shows up as low-confidence — it's disclosed, not hidden, but it isn't presented as a plain fail.
What does “optional” mean?
Only the enhanced criminal record check is optional, as part of the Complete package. Identity, credit, sanctions, law enforcement, and court and eviction records are covered in every report. You choose the enhanced check when the tenancy calls for it.
How does consent work?
The applicant sees who is asking, what will be checked and why, before anything is pulled. Consent is captured in the same flow and logged with the report — including separate consent for the credit pull.
Early access
See it on your next applicant.
Request access, or check what a report costs for your first screening.
