Pre-rental screening (ProprioEnquête, APQ) or full placement: what each one actually covers
A pre-rental investigation does one thing very well: verify a candidate you have already found. The real question isn't which is better, but whether that is the step you need solved.
CORPIQ (ProprioEnquête) and APQ have offered credit and pre-rental investigations to their members for decades. They are solid, widely used tools, and often the right call. They answer "is this candidate reliable?" — they do not cover the steps before it (marketing, sorting enquiries, showings) or the one after, signing a compliant lease. This page compares both without overstating the gap: if you already have your candidate, the investigation alone is almost always the cheaper option.
Option A
Self-serve pre-rental screening (ProprioEnquête / CORPIQ, APQ)
Services offered by landlord associations. You submit a candidate you have already found, with their written consent, and receive a report: credit, payment history, references, TAL records depending on the package. The rest of the rental stays in your hands.
Option B
AA Location
Tenant placement service in Montreal, Laval and Longueuil. Full verification, lease signing coordinated by an OACIQ broker. The owner always keeps the final decision.
Detailed comparison
Line by line
| Criterion | Self-serve pre-rental screening (ProprioEnquête / CORPIQ, APQ) | AA Location |
|---|---|---|
| What the service covers | Verification of a candidate you have already identified | From vacant unit to signed lease — marketing, sorting, verification, signing |
| Who sources the candidate | You. The investigation starts once you have a candidate | We do — listing, distribution, enquiry handling, showings |
| Direct cost | Per-investigation fee, reduced for members; varies by package (credit only, references, TAL records, court records) | Fee shared during the free evaluation (typically ≤ 1 month's rent), verification included |
| Membership required | The best pricing is reserved for association members | No membership |
| Owner's time | 20 to 30 h for the full rental, minus the investigation itself | About 3 h (evaluation, choosing from 2-3 files, signing) |
| Enquiry triage | On you — often 30 to 80 messages to filter before you have a candidate to verify | 2 to 3 already pre-selected and verified files are presented to you |
| Lease signing | On you | Coordinated by an OACIQ-licensed real-estate broker |
| Legal framework (consent, Charter, Law 25) | Written consent is required by the service; how you use the report remains your responsibility | Consent, objective criteria and documentary trail handled end to end |
| Final decision | You, from the report | You, from comparable and already validated files |
Choose based on your situation
When each option is the right one
Choose Self-serve pre-rental screening (ProprioEnquête / CORPIQ, APQ)
You already have your candidate
The most common and clearest case: word of mouth, a referral from a current tenant, a neighbour's relative. You don't need marketing — only to know whether the person pays their bills. A single investigation is clearly cheaper than a full placement.
You're already a member and you enjoy managing
If you're a CORPIQ or APQ member you already pay for a bundle — lease templates, training, advocacy. Member-rate investigations fit naturally into that, and many experienced owners run their rentals very well this way.
Your unit rents itself
High-demand area, below-market rent, a standing waiting list: if marketing costs you no time because enquiries arrive on their own, the step you need to secure is verification, not placement.
Choose AA Location
Your unit is empty and staying that way
An investigation doesn't fill a unit. If the problem is the absence of good candidates rather than doubt about a specific one, the tool addresses the wrong step — and every vacant month costs a full month's rent.
You don't want to sort 40 to 80 enquiries
The heavy work in a rental isn't the investigation, it's what comes before: replying, following up, coordinating showings, filtering out non-serious applications. That's where the 20 to 30 hours go.
You want the lease signed by a broker
An investigation report doesn't produce a lease. If you want the signing, the annexes and the documentary trail handled by an OACIQ-licensed broker, that's a service distinct from verification.
You want to compare rather than validate
An investigation answers yes or no on one candidate. A placement puts 2 to 3 verified files side by side, with rent-to-income ratio and validated references — you pick the best rather than accepting the only one you had.
This comparison is authored by AA Location and reflects our honest reading of the options available to owners in Montreal, Laval and Longueuil. Product or service names cited belong to their respective holders. None of the companies mentioned sponsor this page. Figures (timeline, cost, probabilities) reflect averages observed on the Quebec market — your situation may differ.
Frequently asked questions
About this comparison
- Does placement include the credit investigation?
- Yes. Verification is part of the placement: credit through a personal-information agent, phone references with previous landlords, employment validation and a TAL record search. You don't buy a separate investigation.
- Do I need to be a CORPIQ or APQ member to work with you?
- No, no membership is required. And if you're already a member, nothing stops you from staying one: those associations offer far more than investigations — advocacy, training, document templates.
- Is it cheaper to run the investigation myself?
- For the investigation alone, yes, clearly — and we'll say so plainly. If you already have your candidate, buy the single investigation. The comparison only becomes relevant when you also have to find the candidate: that's when the cost shifts from the investigation fee to your time and your vacant days.
- Can I use you for verification only?
- Yes, file verification is available as a targeted service for a candidate you've already identified. In that specific case, compare it honestly against an association investigation: depending on your situation, either may be the better choice.
- Is the candidate's consent required in both cases?
- Yes, without exception. In Quebec any credit check requires the candidate's written consent, whatever the provider. A service offering to skip that step would expose you — and expose the file in the event of a TAL dispute.
- Is your report as complete as an association's?
- The content is comparable — credit, references, employment, TAL records. The difference isn't the depth of the report, it's what surrounds it: the candidate was sourced, pre-screened and compared against others before reaching the verification step.
Go further
Dig deeper
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