Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

I was wondering if its possible to finalize rental while we are still in the UK? We'll be moving with kids. So it'll be a lot of relief to move straight into our home ! I have a cousin studying in toronto. He can go and have look at the place, meet landlord etc ( so we'll not just be renting based on pics). We sold our house here and have over 100k CAD in our bank accounts. We also have spotless credit histories here. Would this help?

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Yes, you can.

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Difficult but not impossible. We decided to rent an Airbnb for 2 months to give us time to find the right place. Another thing to consider is the time you move over to Canada. Most people do not move in winter, so the rental choices will be less. It will probably take 2-3 months for your goods to arrive from the UK. If you are buying all new furniture and find the ideal location, then go for it. Otherwise I would be careful.

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Generally speaking, no, it wouldn't. I've read however that if you have a record with AMEX, they might transfer that to Canada. I've never done it so someone who has can confirm or deny.
Another specific way is that if you're an HSBC premier account holder in the UK you can pre-arranged a credit card with the same limit that you already enjoy (or don't depending). I have done that in reverse.

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Would I need all this to just rent a place?

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Please can someone list what all I’ll need to rent a place?

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Have you seen the wiki article on precisely this subject?

https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Renting-Canada

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Money in a Canadian bank account.

Admittedly it's a while since I rented a house but I found that all I really needed was proof of funds; lots of funds relative to the rent. The local account is so you can write cheques which is what the landlord will expect.

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Thank you.

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Thank you .

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

The wiki is a great place to start, It might also be worth having a read of this: https://www.ontario.ca/page/renting-ontario-your-rights and LTB: Contact the LTB | SJTO

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Hi we moved over 18 months ago and had a place ready for 2 days after we landed. You need a good realtor and the key to success is communicating quick reply to emails etc. Our Realtor was amazing we transferred money from our UK account to the landlord direct all the paperwork was emailed to us we simply printed it off signed it and resent it via email. We needed my husbands Canadian employment contract as proof of earnings and a ref from our UK landlord and also 2 personal references. That was it I think, so it is doable, I was like you just wanted to not have to be moving around too much with 2 children and a dog in tow. Good Luck

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

Short answer is yes you can.

Longer answer - I am not sure I would want to commit to living for a full year in a place I have never seen. Also if you are shipping your furniture over you won't have anything in the house until it arrives so why not take an Airbnb for a couple of weeks and actually have some say in where you end up more long term.
Landlords will want to see employment letter, references and credit report as a minimum. They may also want to see proof of status in Canada. If you don't have these things then possible alternates might include bank statement showing a large amount of funds.

Finally - if you do decide to rent ahead of time - be careful using sites like Craigslist and Kijiji- there are a huge number of scams on there.

Re: Toronto - Can I find a rental place before we move?
 

thanks for your post. We’ve been to Canada before and explored the towns/areas we shortlisted. Air bnb for a few weeks is nice, but I’m worried we won’t be able find a decent place to move in and get stuck in temporary accommodation for months!