People talk a lot about the price of a placement or screening service, and rarely about the price of doing nothing. Yet a single bad tenant often wipes out several years of the savings made by renting "on your own." Between unpaid rent, delays at the Tribunal administratif du logement (TAL), damage, and vacancy, the bill adds up fast.
This article breaks down the real cost of a bad tenant in Quebec, item by item, with a worked example. The goal isn't to scare you but to put things in perspective: the cost of rigorous screening is a fraction of a single file that goes wrong.
Unpaid rent: the heaviest item
This is the main cost, and the most badly estimated. A tenant who stops paying doesn't free up the unit: you can't remove them yourself. You have to go through the TAL, and throughout the process, arrears pile up — one month of rent lost per month elapsed. Worse, even with a judgment in hand, collection is often difficult if the tenant is insolvent. We detail the steps in our guide on the tenant who isn't paying rent.
TAL delays: time is money
The process takes time: filing the application, waiting for a hearing, the judgment, then execution by a bailiff if the tenant doesn't leave. Depending on the district and the caseload, several months can pass between the first missed rent and actually getting the unit back. Every month of delay is one more month of arrears — and a unit you can't re-rent.
Damage to the unit
A problem tenant often leaves the unit in poor condition: deep cleaning, repairs, sometimes significant damage. And since security deposits are illegal in Quebec, you have no sum held back to offset these costs — you have to claim them at the TAL, with the same collection risk. Hence the importance of a documented move-in inspection.
Vacancy after they leave
Once you get the unit back, you often have to restore it, list it again, screen a new tenant, and sign a new lease. Every week of vacancy is lost rent that won't come back. A unit recovered outside the high season (the spring before July 1) can stay vacant longer.
A worked example: a typical case
Take a unit rented at $1,500 a month and a non-payment file that resolves in 4 to 6 months. The figures below are illustrative — your situation may be lighter or much heavier — but they give the order of magnitude:
| Item | Estimated range |
|---|---|
| Unpaid rent (4 to 6 months before recovery) | $6,000 – $9,000 |
| Damage beyond normal wear | $500 – $5,000+ |
| Vacancy and re-listing | $1,500 – $3,000 |
| Filings, TAL and bailiff fees, time | Variable |
| Realistic total | Often $8,000 – $15,000+ |
Estimate your own risk
Every unit is different: the rent, the recovery time, and the unit's condition all change the bill. For an estimate tailored to your situation, use our bad-tenant cost calculator — a few fields are enough to size up your exposure.
How to avoid this cost: it all comes down to screening
Almost all of these losses are prevented up front, at the moment you choose the tenant. A well-verified file radically reduces the risk of non-payment and damage:
- 1Assess payment capacity — stable income and a reasonable rent-to-income ratio.
- 2Run a credit check with consent, and validate employment and references from previous landlords.
- 3Document a move-in inspection so you can claim for any damage.
- 4Never skip a step out of eagerness to re-rent — haste is the number-one cause of a bad file. See our signs of a bad tenant to avoid.
The best protection against the cost of a bad tenant is not to have one. That's exactly what our tenant-placement service does — rigorous, compliant screening in Montreal, Laval and Longueuil.