MoveSmart Rentals
Secure data infrastructure protecting tenant and landlord information
Trust & Transparency
Privacy Policy

Your data, handled with care

We process personal, financial, and identification information so we can lease your home, place qualified tenants, and collect rent. This page explains exactly what we hold, why we hold it, and the rights you have over it.

1. Introduction

MoveSmart Rentals ("MoveSmart," "we," "us," or "our") is a full-service residential leasing brokerage operating across Canada and in select United States markets. In Canada, all real estate trades are conducted through our licensed brokerage partner, Valery Real Estate Inc., Brokerage, which is registered under the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) and the equivalent provincial regulators where we operate.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect personal information when you visit movesmartrentals.com, complete a rental application, list a property with us, or otherwise interact with our services. It is written for the people who actually use MoveSmart, so we have skipped most of the legalese.

Last updated: May 18, 2026.

Our Privacy Officer is responsible for our compliance with the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and provincial privacy statutes. You can reach the Privacy Officer at privacy@movesmartrentals.com or by mail at the address in Section 12.

2. Information We Collect

The information we hold depends on whether you are a prospective tenant, a current tenant, a property owner, a vendor, or simply a visitor to our website. We try to collect only what we actually need to deliver the service you have asked for.

Personal identification

  • Full legal name, preferred name, and date of birth
  • Email address, mobile and home phone numbers
  • Current and previous home addresses
  • Emergency contact details (where you provide them)

Government-issued identification

For tenant qualification, anti-money-laundering checks under FINTRAC rules, and identity verification required by RECO, we may collect a clear copy of a government-issued photo ID such as a driver's licence, provincial ID card, or passport. ID images are stored encrypted and access is restricted to authorized staff.

Financial information

  • Credit history and credit score (pulled via Equifax or TransUnion with your consent)
  • Employment status, employer name, position, and length of employment
  • Self-reported and verified income, including pay stubs, T4s, or notices of assessment
  • Banking details (institution, transit, account number) for pre-authorized rent payments and owner disbursements
  • Co-signer or guarantor information when applicable

Property information (owners and landlords)

  • Property address, legal description, and ownership documents
  • Mortgage or condo corporation details where relevant to lease terms
  • Photos, floor plans, and feature lists used to market the unit
  • Insurance policy details required for tenancy

Application and tenancy history

We retain your full rental application, references from previous landlords, lease agreements, addenda, move-in and move-out inspection reports, maintenance requests, payment history, and any communications relating to your tenancy.

Communication records

We may record incoming and outgoing phone calls, retain email and SMS threads, and log messages sent through our owner and tenant portals. Calls are recorded for quality assurance, training, dispute resolution, and compliance with provincial real estate regulations. You will hear a notification at the start of any recorded call.

Cookies and technical data

When you visit our website we automatically collect IP address, browser type and version, device type and operating system, referring URL, the pages you view, and timestamps. See Section 8 for cookie details.

3. How We Use Your Information

We only use personal information for the purposes we have told you about or that are reasonably obvious from the context in which you provided it. Specifically:

  • Tenant qualification and screening. Verifying identity, running credit checks, confirming income and employment, contacting previous landlords, and assessing applications against the owner's tenant criteria.
  • Lease execution and rent collection. Drafting and signing the residential tenancy agreement, setting up pre-authorized debits, processing monthly rent, issuing receipts, and disbursing funds to property owners.
  • Marketing your property. Listing eligible properties on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), Realtor.ca, and more than twenty syndication platforms including Zillow, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, and other major rental portals.
  • Communication and customer support. Responding to inquiries, scheduling showings, coordinating move-ins, sending statements, and handling maintenance requests.
  • Legal and regulatory compliance. Meeting our obligations under RECO, the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act (REBBA), provincial Residential Tenancies Acts, FINTRAC anti-money-laundering rules, the federal and Ontario Human Rights Codes (fair-housing), and applicable US state laws where we operate.
  • Service improvement and analytics. Understanding how our website is used, improving our application workflow, training staff, and reporting aggregate, de-identified results to owners.

4. Sharing With Third Parties

We never sell personal information. We share it only with the parties listed below, and only the minimum amount needed for the stated purpose.

Our brokerage of record

In Canada, all trades in real estate, lease executions, and trust account transactions flow through Valery Real Estate Inc., Brokerage, our licensed brokerage partner. Valery Real Estate accesses application and tenancy records as required by RECO and provincial regulations.

Credit reporting agencies

With your written consent, we request credit reports from Equifax Canada and TransUnion Canada (or the equivalent US agencies for cross-border applications). These agencies receive the personal identifiers needed to retrieve your file.

Background-check providers

We use vetted third-party screening vendors to verify identity, search public eviction records where lawful, and confirm employment. These vendors are contractually bound to PIPEDA-equivalent privacy standards.

Listing and syndication platforms

When marketing a property we publish address, photos, and feature data to MLS, Realtor.ca, Zillow, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, and other rental portals. Tenant personal information is never published on any listing.

Payment processors and financial partners

Pre-authorized debits, electronic funds transfers, and owner disbursements are handled by Canadian-regulated payment processors. They receive only the banking details and amounts required to complete each transaction.

Legal, regulatory, and law enforcement

We may disclose information when required by a court order, subpoena, search warrant, or written request from a regulator such as RECO, FINTRAC, the Landlord and Tenant Board, or an equivalent US authority.

Successor entities

If MoveSmart is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of all or part of our business, personal information may be transferred to the successor entity, subject to the same protections set out in this policy.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal information only as long as we have a legitimate business or legal reason to hold it. Typical retention periods are:

  • Financial records (rent payments, trust ledger entries, disbursements, T5s): minimum seven (7) years, in line with Canada Revenue Agency record-keeping rules.
  • Tenancy records (applications, leases, inspection reports, correspondence): minimum six (6) years after the tenancy ends, or longer where a provincial Residential Tenancies Act requires it.
  • Brokerage trade records (offers, deposits, identification copies): minimum six (6) years per RECO recordkeeping rules, or longer where required by FINTRAC.
  • Unsuccessful applicant data: retained for up to twelve (12) months in case of complaint or re-application, then securely deleted.
  • Marketing and website analytics: retained for up to twenty-six (26) months unless you opt out earlier.

Once a retention period expires, records are either securely deleted or de-identified so they can no longer be linked to you.

6. Your Rights

You have meaningful control over the personal information we hold about you. To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@movesmartrentals.com with enough detail to identify your file. We respond within thirty (30) days.

  • Access. Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, along with a description of how it is used and with whom it has been shared.
  • Correction. Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete. Where we cannot agree, we will note the disputed information in your file.
  • Deletion. Ask us to delete information about you. We will comply unless we are required by law (for example, the seven-year financial records rule) to retain it.
  • Withdrawal of consent. Withdraw your consent to certain uses, such as marketing emails or optional analytics. Some processing is required to deliver service - withdrawing consent for credit checks, for instance, would end an active application.
  • Complaint. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, or the equivalent authority in your jurisdiction.

7. Security

We use technical, administrative, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, theft, and unauthorized access, copying, use, modification, or disclosure.

  • Encryption. All traffic to and from our website and portals is encrypted with TLS 1.2 or higher. Sensitive data, including ID images and banking details, is encrypted at rest.
  • Access controls. Personal information is restricted to staff with a job-related need to know. We use role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, and detailed audit logs.
  • Vendor management. Third parties handling personal information sign data-processing agreements obliging them to PIPEDA-equivalent standards.
  • Employee training. All staff complete privacy and fair-housing training at hire and annually thereafter.
  • Breach response. In the unlikely event of a privacy breach that poses a real risk of significant harm, we will notify affected individuals and report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada as required by PIPEDA's mandatory breach reporting rules.

8. Cookies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember preferences, and measure how the site performs. We group cookies into the following categories:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. Required for the site to function - for example, session cookies that keep you signed in to the owner or tenant portal. These cannot be disabled.
  • Analytics cookies. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate visitor behaviour. IP addresses are anonymized. You can opt out by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
  • Preference cookies. Remember settings such as your preferred city or display preferences.

You can disable analytics and preference cookies through your browser settings or our cookie banner. Disabling strictly necessary cookies will break sign-in and portal functionality.

9. Cross-Border Transfers

MoveSmart operates in Canada and in select United States markets. To support our US operations, certain personal information may be stored or processed by service providers located in the United States, including cloud hosting, email, and customer support platforms.

When personal information is transferred outside of Canada, it may be accessible to courts, law enforcement, or national security authorities in the receiving jurisdiction. We comply with PIPEDA's cross-border transfer requirements by maintaining contractual safeguards with our service providers that are comparable to the protections you would have in Canada.

10. Children's Privacy

Our services are intended for adults of legal age to enter into a residential tenancy agreement, generally eighteen (18) or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child, please contact the Privacy Officer and we will delete it promptly.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or the law. The current version is always posted at this URL with the "Last updated" date at the top. If we make a material change that affects how we use information you have already provided, we will notify you by email or through your portal account before the change takes effect.

12. Contact

Questions, access requests, complaints, or anything else privacy-related should go to our Privacy Officer:

For general inquiries about our services, visit our Contact page.