Rentvic — Content Policy

Effective date: 2026-09-04
Last updated: 2026-09-04

Rentvic is for finding a place to live and for filling one. This page says plainly what is and is not acceptable, and what happens when something is not.

We would rather write this down than enforce rules nobody published.

The short version

• Describe the home, not the tenant.
• Say true things about the place, the price, and yourself.
• Talk to people about housing, and stop when they ask you to.
• If something here is wrong, tell us. We read every report.

Discrimination

This is the first section because it is the one that matters most, and the one people most often break without meaning to.

British Columbia's Human Rights Code makes it illegal to refuse someone housing, or to set different terms, because of who they are. The protected grounds include race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, and lawful source of income.

That applies to what you write as much as to what you decide. A listing does not have to reject anyone to break the rule — it only has to say who it is for. These are not permitted on Rentvic:

• "No kids", "adults only", "not suitable for children"
• "Working professionals only", "no students", "employed applicants only"
• "No income assistance", "no subsidy", "must be employed full-time"
• "Ideal for a single person", "suits a mature couple"
• Anything describing the kind of person who should live there, rather than the kind of home it is

Describing the home is always fine, including when it limits who it suits. "Third-floor walk-up, no elevator" is a fact about the building. "Not suitable for anyone with mobility issues" is a decision about a person.

This applies to roommate profiles too, with one difference: choosing who you share a kitchen with is more personal than choosing a tenant, and the law treats it differently. You may say what you are like and what you are looking for in a living situation — quiet, tidy, early riser, pet-friendly. You may not turn that into a filter on somebody's identity.

If you see it, report it. Discrimination is the first reason on the report form, and it is there because our own fair-housing review named unmoderated conversations as this platform's largest exposure. Folding it into "other" would tell you it is not a thing you report here. It is.

Honest listings

• The unit must be real, available, and yours to offer — as the owner, the property manager, or someone with lawful authority.
• Price, size, and availability must be accurate. Photos must be of the actual unit; if a photo is of a similar unit or a show suite, say so.
• No bait listings: advertising a unit to collect enquiries for a different one.
• No listing the same unit repeatedly to sit higher in search results.
• Take it down, or mark it rented, once it is gone.

Honest people

• Be who you say you are. Do not impersonate another person, a company, or a property manager.
• One account per person. Do not make a second one to get around a suspension.
• Do not lie on a rental profile or an application — about your history, your references, or your circumstances.
• Do not ask another user for money before a tenancy agreement exists. No legitimate landlord on Rentvic needs a deposit to show you a unit. Requests to wire money, send an e-transfer for a viewing, or pay a "holding fee" to someone you have not met are the most common scam in rental housing. Report them.

Messages

Rentvic exists so that a tenant can start a conversation with a landlord about a home. Messages are for that.

• Do not use messages to advertise unrelated services, recruit, or solicit.
• Do not harass, threaten, or demean anyone. Do not keep messaging somebody who has stopped replying.
• Do not send sexual content, or comment on someone's appearance.
• Do not ask for information you do not need. A landlord assessing an application does not need to know somebody's religion, whether they plan to have children, or where they were born — and asking is itself a problem, not just acting on the answer.

Messages cannot be edited or deleted once sent. That is deliberate: it means a conversation is a record both people can rely on, and it means nobody can say something and then rewrite it after being challenged.

Photos and content

• Photos must be yours to post, or licensed for you to use.
• No photos of people who have not agreed to appear, including tenants currently living in a unit.
• Nothing sexual, violent, or illegal.
• Do not post anyone's personal information — address, phone number, workplace, or documents — that they did not choose to share themselves.

Using the platform

• Do not scrape, bulk-download, or automate access beyond ordinary use.
• Do not attempt to break, overload, or work around the platform's security.
• Do not attempt to see information that is not yours. If you find a way to, please tell us instead of using it — email legal@rentvic.ca and we will thank you properly.

What happens when something breaks these rules

We look at reports, and we also act on things we find ourselves.

Depending on what happened and whether it has happened before, we may:

• Take no action, and tell the reporter nothing more than that we looked
• Ask you to change or remove something
• Remove a listing, a photo, or a profile
• Issue a warning on your account
• Suspend your account for a period
• Permanently remove your account
• Report unlawful conduct to the appropriate authorities

If we act against you, we will tell you. What we did, which rule it was under, how long it lasts, and how to reach a human about it. A suspension with no explanation is indistinguishable from a bug, and a decision you cannot respond to is not a fair one.

We will not tell a reporter what happened to the person they reported. Whether someone was warned or suspended is information about them, not about the report — and a report system that reports back becomes a way to find out whether somebody got in trouble.

What we do not do

Being clear about the limits is part of publishing the rules.

• We do not verify listings before they go up. We do not inspect units, confirm ownership, or check that a price is real. Look at the place, meet the person, and satisfy yourself before you sign or pay anything.
• We do not screen users. Anyone can sign up.
• We do not scan messages. Conversations are private between the people in them. A message is only ever read by someone at Rentvic if it is reported, and then only the reported message and enough around it to understand it.
• We do not use automated systems to judge whether a listing is discriminatory. A machine deciding that would make Rentvic the author of that judgement at scale, and it would be wrong in both directions — flagging innocent listings and giving false assurance about the rest. We would rather tell landlords the rule while they are writing, and have a person look when somebody reports.

Reporting something

[Where reporting tools are available in the product, use them — they attach the right context automatically.] You can always email legal@rentvic.ca.

Tell us what you saw and where. If it is a message, tell us which conversation. You do not need to be certain something breaks a rule to report it.

If you are in immediate danger, call 911. Rentvic is not an emergency service and we cannot respond quickly enough to be one.

Changes

We may update this policy. Unlike the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, changes here do not require your re-acceptance — but material changes will be noted, and the "Last updated" date always reflects the most recent revision.