Conducting Employment Reference Checks | Questions for Landlords

Updated: August 5th, 2026

An employment reference call is one component of a complete tenant screening process – and a distinct one from a landlord reference call. The employer can speak to income, employment stability, and professional conduct. They cannot tell you about rental behaviour, property care, or how the applicant treats a home. Both references serve different purposes, and getting both right requires understanding what each is designed to reveal.

This guide covers what to ask during an employment reference call, how to verify the information independently, what PIPEDA permits, and how to read the answers you get – including the non-answers that tell you the most.

Why the Employment Reference Matters

In Ontario’s tenant screening process, income verification is one of the most important factors – and the most commonly faked. Pay stubs can be fabricated. Employment letters can be forged. An employer who confirms the details of an application over the phone is the most reliable income verification a landlord can obtain short of a Canada Revenue Agency Notice of Assessment.

The employment reference call also tells you things a pay stub can’t: – Whether the employment is genuinely stable or recently started – Whether the employer expects the employment to continue – What the employee’s professional reputation is like – Whether there are any credibility red flags between what the applicant said and what the employer confirms

For self-employed applicants, the employment reference process is different – and the questions shift toward financial documentation. That section is covered below.

Before You Call – Independent Verification

The most important step happens before you pick up the phone: verify that the number you’re calling is genuinely the employer’s, not a friend or co-conspirator posing as one.

How to independently verify:
- Search the employer’s name on Google and find the company’s official website
- Call the main company phone number from the website – not the number on the application
- Ask to be transferred to HR or the manager named as a reference
- Cross-reference the company address on the application against the company’s official address

This single step – taking 5 minutes – is the most effective fraud prevention available in employment verification. A fake employer reference is one of the most common forms of rental application fraud, and it completely falls apart the moment you call the actual company rather than the number on the form.

For the full fraud-prevention framework across all reference types, our guide on how to conduct a complete landlord reference check covers independent verification and what inconsistencies to watch for.

The 12 Questions to Ask During an Employment Reference Call

Introduction to use when calling: “Hi, my name is [name] and I’m a landlord in Ontario. [Applicant name] has applied to rent a property and listed you as their employment reference. Do you have a few minutes to confirm some details?”

Can you confirm that [applicant name] is employed with your organization? This confirms the employment exists. A “no” ends the conversation immediately.
What is their current job title or position? Cross-reference against what the applicant wrote on the application.
Is this a full-time or part-time position? Part-time employment affects the reliability of the income figure on the application. Note it.
What is their annual salary or hourly wage? Some HR departments will only confirm a salary range rather than the exact amount – that’s acceptable. What you’re listening for is whether the figure is consistent with what the applicant provided.
When did they begin working with your company? Employment start date is one of the most commonly falsified details. LinkedIn cross-referencing and this question together catch most tenure misrepresentation.
Is their employment permanent, contract, or seasonal? Contract and seasonal employment affects income stability. A contract that ends in three months is relevant to whether the tenant can sustain rent payments over a 12-month lease.
Is there anything that would affect the continuity of their employment in the near future – anticipated layoffs, restructuring, or contract end? Most employers will decline to answer this specifically, but the question occasionally surfaces important information. At minimum, it signals to the employer that you’re asking seriously.
Does their employment allow remote work, or are they required to be in the area? Relevant to whether a long-distance applicant might relocate after taking the unit.
How would you describe their punctuality and reliability as an employee? Some employers will engage with this, others will limit themselves to confirming employment details for HR policy reasons. Any substantive response is useful.
Do they have any performance issues or disciplinary actions that you can disclose? Most HR departments will decline to answer. But an employer who says “I’d rather not say” to this question is giving you a signal worth noting.
Is there anything that would prevent you from recommending this person as a tenant – any concerns about their reliability or responsibility? An unusual question that occasionally prompts a candid response when the reference would like to say something but feels constrained by HR policy from volunteering it.
Is there anything else you’d like to share that you think would be relevant to my decision? The open-ended close. As with landlord reference calls, some of the most useful information emerges in response to this question.

The Copy-Paste Call Template

Employment Reference Check – [Applicant Name]
Date of Call	__________________________
Employer Name	__________________________
Contact Name & Title	__________________________
Verified Contact Phone	__________________________
Method of Verification	☐ Company Website ☐ Business Directory ☐ Other: __________________

Self-Employed Applicants – A Different Process

For self-employed applicants, there is no employer to call. Income verification shifts to documentation review:

Notice of Assessment (NOA) from CRA – Line 15000 (total income) is the most reliable income figure. Request the last two years. – Business bank statements – 3–6 months showing regular income deposits consistent with stated business income.
T2125 (Statement of Business or Professional Activities) – confirms self-employment income reported to CRA. – HST registration – businesses with over $30,000 in annual revenue must be HST-registered. Absence of registration on a high-income self-employed applicant is a red flag.
Professional website or business registration – confirms the business exists and appears operational.

Self-employment income can be genuinely variable, and a single bad year on an NOA shouldn’t automatically disqualify a strong applicant. Assess income over two years and look for a pattern of stable or growing income.

Employment vs Landlord Reference – Key Differences

Category	Employment Reference	Landlord Reference
Who You Contact	HR department or the applicant’s direct manager	Previous landlord (independently verified)
Primary Purpose	Verify employment, income, and job stability	Assess rental history, payment habits, and property care
Most Important Question	“Can you confirm the applicant’s employment start date and salary?”	“Would you rent to this person again?”
Disclosure Limitations	High – many employers have policies restricting what they can disclose	Lower – previous landlords are generally able to discuss tenancy experience
Fraud Risk	High – applicants may provide fake employer contacts	High – applicants may provide fake landlord references
What It Doesn’t Tell You	How the applicant treated a rental property or complied with lease terms	Whether the applicant has stable current income or employment
Privacy Considerations (PIPEDA)	Applies to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information	Applies to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information

For the complete landlord reference call guide including 15 must-ask questions, the copy-paste call template, and how to catch a fake landlord reference, that post covers the landlord reference process in full.

Red Flags During the Employment Reference Call

The number you’re calling isn’t the actual company. If your independent verification finds a different main number than the one on the application, call your verified number – not the applicant’s.

The contact isn’t in the role they claim. If the named reference is supposedly an HR manager but has no company email address and answers immediately on a personal cell, probe further.

The salary figure is significantly different from the application. A 10–15% variance might be rounding; a 30%+ difference warrants direct follow-up with the applicant.

The start date is much more recent than stated. An applicant who claims 2 years of employment that turns out to be 2 months is falsifying their application – and that falsification is grounds for rejection.

The employer is evasive on everything. An employer who won’t confirm even basic employment facts (start date, full/part-time status) when you’ve properly introduced yourself may be a coached fake reference. When in doubt, call the company’s general line and verify through their HR department independently.

The employer confirms the employment but adds an unsolicited concern. Any comment suggesting concern about reliability, attendance, or conduct – volunteered without being asked – deserves follow-up.

PIPEDA and Human Rights Code Considerations

The same privacy and human rights rules that apply to landlord reference calls apply here:

PIPEDA: Limit your questions to information directly relevant to income and employment stability. Don’t collect information unrelated to tenancy suitability.
Ontario Human Rights Code: The employment reference call occasionally reveals protected characteristics – disability, pregnancy, family status. An HR manager who mentions that an employee is on or returning from parental leave, medical leave, or similar is revealing information you should not act on in your screening decision.

Focus on the income figure, the tenure, the stability of the employment, and the employer’s general assessment of reliability. Everything else is peripheral and potentially problematic.

The 2026 Fraud Landscape – Why Employment Verification Has Never Mattered More

Rental application fraud in Ontario has evolved significantly. What was once limited to altered pay stubs is now a broader ecosystem: AI-generated employment letters indistinguishable from genuine documents, synthetic LinkedIn profiles with manufactured work history, phone number spoofing that makes fake employers appear to be calling from legitimate business lines, and coordinated fake reference rings where multiple people play different roles.

The fraud detection value of the employment reference call – conducted using an independently verified phone number – remains high precisely because it requires real-time conversation with a real person at the actual employer. AI cannot intercept a call made to a number you found independently on the employer’s official website. A fake LinkedIn profile cannot answer when an HR representative at the real company tells you the person has never worked there.

Several Ontario property managers and credit bureaus have noted a pattern in 2025–2026: applicants with fraudulent income documentation tend to have applied at multiple properties in quick succession, suggesting a coordinated approach to rental fraud. Running a credit check through a service that includes fraud flags – and conducting independent employer verification – catches this pattern before a fraudulent placement creates months of non-payment.

Building a Complete Fraud-Resistant Screening Process

The employment reference call sits within a screening process designed to verify the applicant’s identity, income, and rental history from multiple independent angles. No single component catches all fraud; the system works because multiple independent checks would all have to be fooled simultaneously.

Identity verification establishes who the applicant actually is: government-issued photo ID cross-referenced against the application name, address, and date of birth.
Credit check reveals financial behaviour across all credit products – not just what the applicant reports. Significantly, a National Tenant Registry (NTR) check includes past LTB eviction orders, which is one of the most valuable fraud-detection signals available. An applicant with a recent eviction order they didn’t disclose on the application is a fundamental red flag.
Income documentation review examines the documents themselves: do the fonts, formatting, and content look consistent with genuine documents from that employer? Pay stub generators produce documents that look convincing at a glance but contain subtle inconsistencies – wrong fonts for the company, gross/net math that doesn’t reconcile, HST numbers that don’t match the employer.
Independent employer verification is the employment reference call itself: calling the employer at a verified number, speaking with a real person, and confirming the income documentation.
Landlord reference call from the previous (not current) landlord independently verified through land registry confirms rental behaviour separate from employment and income.
Social media cross-reference verifies employment history, current employer, and any inconsistencies between what the applicant claims and what their public online presence shows.
The investment of time in this complete process – typically 2–4 hours for a thorough screening – is insignificant compared to the cost of a poor placement in Ontario’s 2026 LTB environment.

Handling Specific Employment Situations That Arise Frequently

The Recent Job Change

An applicant who has changed jobs within the past 60–90 days presents specific verification challenges. Their current employer may have limited documentation of their role (no pay stubs covering the full income claimed), and their previous employer may not be able to speak to their ongoing income stability. In this situation:

Verify the current employment with the new employer as described above
Request the offer letter or employment agreement showing the stated salary
Request the most recent pay stub even if it covers only a short period
Obtain a Notice of Assessment from the prior tax year to establish historical income
Consider whether the applicant’s transition from their previous employment is consistent with their broader story

The Contract or Gig Worker

Contract workers, freelancers, and gig economy workers present a fundamentally different income profile. There may be no traditional employer to call. Income may be highly variable. The verification tools shift to documentation-heavy:

Two to three years of Notices of Assessment showing consistent income
Six months of bank statements showing regular income deposits consistent with the claimed earnings – Contracts or statements of work from their primary clients, if available
HST registration if their business revenue exceeds $30,000 annually (required under the Excise Tax Act) – the presence or absence of HST registration can corroborate claimed revenue levels

The Self-Employed Business Owner

Self-employed applicants who own businesses may have complex income situations: personal draws from the business that differ from business revenue, fluctuating income across years, and a range of deductions that affect what appears on their NOA. The most reliable documentation:

Personal T1 returns (the entire return, not just the NOA) for the last two to three years
T2125 (Statement of Business or Professional Activities) showing business income and expenses
Recent bank statements for both personal and business accounts – Financial statements prepared by an accountant if available

The Recently Immigrated Applicant

An applicant who has recently arrived in Canada may have limited Canadian credit history and no Canadian employer reference to call. This does not make them a risky tenant – it simply means the standard verification tools are less available. In this situation:

Foreign credit reports can sometimes be obtained through specialist services
Employment letters from Canadian employers – even if recently started – are verifiable – International bank statements showing assets can support financial stability
Personal references from professionals (lawyers, accountants, community organizations) who can speak to character and reliability can supplement the standard process

Be careful not to apply a higher burden of proof to recently immigrated applicants in a way that treats their national origin as a screening criterion – the Human Rights Code’s protections apply equally regardless of where the applicant is from.

Frequently Asked Questions – Expanded

Q: Can an employer legally refuse to give an employment reference?

Yes – many companies have HR policies limiting what they can confirm in a reference call, often to employment dates, job title, and whether the person is eligible for rehire. This is a legal risk management practice that has become increasingly common. A constrained reference that only confirms dates and title is not a red flag – it’s a corporate policy. Use the income documentation (pay stub, offer letter) to substantiate the income figure, and note in your screening record that the employer confirmed employment with limited details per policy.

Q: What if the applicant doesn’t have a traditional employer – they work for themselves?

Self-employment is a legitimate income source and cannot be a basis for rejection. Shift your verification to the documentation approach described in the self-employed applicant section above. The key question is whether the income is stable, documented, and sufficient. Require two to three years of tax documentation and recent bank statements. A self-employed applicant who can demonstrate consistent income over multiple years is often a lower risk than a salaried employee in a volatile industry.

Q: What happens if the employer confirms the applicant’s employment but the salary doesn’t meet my income threshold?

Apply your income threshold consistently to all applicants. If the verified gross income is below your stated threshold (typically 2.5 to 3 times monthly rent), you can decline the application on that documented basis. Make sure you’ve applied the same threshold to other applicants for the same unit and that your threshold is stated clearly in your screening criteria – this documents that the decision was based on a neutral financial criterion, not any protected characteristic.

Q: Is it necessary to call an employment reference if I already have pay stubs and an employment letter?

Yes – particularly in 2026 when document fraud has become more sophisticated. Pay stubs and employment letters can be fabricated convincingly. An employer who confirms the details over the phone at a verified number provides independent corroboration that the documents cannot provide on their own. The call takes 10–15 minutes and is the most reliable fraud-detection step in the employment verification process.

Q: What if the applicant works in a sensitive field where employer contact might create issues?

Some applicants – healthcare workers, public servants in certain roles, people in security-sensitive positions – may have legitimate concerns about employer contact for employment references. In this situation, ask the applicant to facilitate the reference through their HR department rather than their direct manager, and request documentation directly from the employer (a letter on official letterhead confirming employment, title, and income) as an alternative to a call. The goal is independent corroboration of the income claim – the method can be adapted to the situation.

Get Tenant Screening Done Right

Employment verification is one component of a complete screening process. Our tenant screening and selection service handles every element – credit checks, income verification, independent employer verification calls, landlord reference calls, and social media review – creating a complete, documented screening file for every placement.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. PIPEDA requirements and Human Rights Code interpretations are subject to change. Consult a licensed legal professional for advice specific to your situation.