Is Landlord Credit Bureau really a licensed credit bureau in compliance with Provincial and Federal Law?

LCB is licensed to operate in Ontario as a Credit Reporting Agency under the name 2642985 ONTARIO INC. As such it is governed by the Consumer Reporting Act. There is currently no finding of fact from the Registrar that Landlord Credit Bureau is not compliant with the Consumer Reporting Act but there have been issues with them not disclosing information as required under the act which are the subject of pending complaints.

UPDATE: We can now report that there are two government investigations into Landlord Credit Bureau. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Affairs are both looking into LCB and their practices. We are also aware of an investigation into LiveWell Property Management by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. As these are matters under investigation we are refraining from publishing details at this time.

What is the Landlord Credit Bureau

The Landlord Credit Bureau is a private organization aiming to be a resource to landlords by providing a central database of tenants and their histories. Landlords can then access this service for a fee and use it as a tenant screening tool.

From their About page found at landlordcreditbureau.com:

Our mission is to improve the businesses and lives of landlords, property managers and responsible tenants. Landlords spend most of their time dealing with the lousy 10% of tenants who cause all of the problems. They rarely hear from the fantastic 90% of tenants and rarely have time to do something nice for them.

It’s unclear what the benefit to tenants is in this arrangement. The site claims vague benefits to the tenant such as:

Improve your credit report
Build a good tenant record
Skip the line, get the place you want
Monitor your records
Authenticate and rate your landlords