A vacant rental unit in British Columbia costs a landlord roughly $66 to $94 per day, and turning the unit over between tenancies adds another $1,000 to $2,500. A tenant screening report costs $25 to $45, once.

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TL;DR

Most landlords think of a rejection as a decision they make about an applicant. The expensive rejection is the one that happens later, when the person you approved turns out to be the wrong fit and you are back to an empty unit. Here is what that mistake costs in British Columbia, and what the alternative costs.

• Lost rent while vacant: $66 to $94 per day, driven by slower re leasing in a softer purpose built market.
• Turnover between tenancies: $1,000 to $2,500 per unit for cleaning, paint, repairs, and re listing.
• A dispute at the RTB: a $100 filing fee, plus the unpaid rent accruing through the notice period and the wait for an order of possession.
• A screening report: $25 to $45, paid by you, not the applicant.

That last line is the point of this article. Screening costs about the same as half a day of vacancy. Everything above it costs weeks.

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Table of Contents

• The Rejection You Are Not Thinking About
• What an Empty Unit Costs in BC Right Now
• The Turnover Bill Nobody Budgets For
• When It Goes Further Than a Vacancy
• What One Bad Approval Adds Up To
• Why You Cannot Charge Anyone for It
• Key Takeaways
• FAQ

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Key Takeaways

• Metro Vancouver's purpose built vacancy rate more than doubled to 3.7 percent in 2025, the highest in over thirty years, though the secondary condo market stayed tight at roughly 1.5 percent.
• A vacant unit costs roughly $66 to $94 per day depending on rent, and turnover adds another $1,000 to $2,500.
• A tenancy that ends in unpaid rent can run between roughly $5,900 and $7,400 on a $2,200 unit once arrears, the RTB fee, turnover, and vacancy are added together.
• Deposits are capped at one half month each for security and pet damage, so they will not absorb a serious arrears situation.
• You may weigh income, credit, references, and employment. You may not decline on a protected ground, which in BC includes lawful source of income.
• You are not required to give a reason for a decline, but written criteria applied consistently are what make it defensible.
• Charging an application or screening fee is prohibited under Residential Tenancy Act section 15.
• A screening report costs $25 to $45. Half a day of vacancy costs more.

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The Rejection You Are Not Thinking About

Ask a landlord about rejecting applications and they will usually describe the awkward part. The email you have to send. The person who seemed nice at the showing. The worry that saying no to the wrong applicant, for the wrong reason, could land you in front of the Human Rights Tribunal.

That worry is well placed, and it is worth settling before we go any further. Screening is legal in British Columbia. Screening carelessly is not. You may weigh income, credit history, references, employment, and pet terms, but you may not decline on a protected ground under section 10 of the Human Rights Code, which here includes lawful source of income and family status. You are not required to give a reason for a decline, though a written set of criteria applied the same way to every applicant is what makes the decision defensible a year later. Our guide to how to screen tenants in BC covers the legal limits in full.

None of that, though, is where the money goes.

The rejection that actually costs you is the one you make by accident, when you approve someone because you had three applications, two of them were incomplete, and the unit had already been sitting for two weeks. That is not a decision. That is a deadline making the decision for you.

Everything that follows is an attempt to put a number on what that deadline costs, so you can decide how much process is worth building in front of it.

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What an Empty Unit Costs in BC Right Now

The market shifted, and a lot of landlord instincts have not caught up.

CMHC's 2025 Rental Market Report put the purpose built vacancy rate in Metro Vancouver at 3.7 percent, more than double the 1.6 percent recorded a year earlier and the highest level in more than thirty years. Greater Victoria reached 3.3 percent, the highest since 1999. Across BC municipalities with populations over 10,000, the average moved from 1.9 percent to 3.5 percent.

One caveat matters a great deal if you own a condo or a secondary suite rather than a unit in a purpose built building. The loosening was concentrated in the purpose built market. Rented condominium vacancy in Metro Vancouver sat near 1.5 percent, and in Greater Victoria it was closer to 0.3 percent. The secondary market is still tight.

So the honest version of the story is not that your unit will now sit empty for months. It is that the renters looking at it have more options than they did in 2022, the purpose built buildings competing with you are running incentives, and a listing that used to move in a weekend can take three weeks. The pressure to say yes quickly has not gone away. It just arrives from a different direction.

Here is what an empty unit costs per day, whichever market you are in.

• At $1,800 per month: $59 per vacant day, or $1,243 over three weeks.
• At $2,200 per month: $72 per vacant day, or $1,518 over three weeks.
• At $2,850 per month: $94 per vacant day, or $1,968 over three weeks.

For context on where real rents sit, CMHC recorded an average of $2,120 for a two bedroom purpose built apartment in Greater Victoria in 2025, up 5.1 percent year over year. Secondary market units, including rented condos, generally run higher than the purpose built average, which only raises the daily number for most self managing landlords.

The uncomfortable part is that these are not one time costs. They repeat every time you turn the unit over. A tenancy that ends after eight months instead of three years does not just cost you the vacancy once. It moves your entire turnover schedule forward. Our guide to filling vacancies faster covers the listing side of that problem.

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The Turnover Bill Nobody Budgets For

Vacancy is the visible cost. Turnover is the one that quietly doubles it.

For landlords with small portfolios, turning a unit over typically runs somewhere between $1,000 and $2,500. That figure comes largely from US and industry sources rather than Canadian official data, so treat it as directional. The categories, though, are the same on both sides of the border.

• Deep cleaning
• Repainting, which is the single largest line item in most turnovers
• Carpet cleaning or replacement
• Small repairs that were tolerable during a tenancy but not showable
• Listing and advertising fees
• Your own time running showings

That last one rarely makes it onto a spreadsheet, which is exactly why it is worth pricing. If you run six showings for a single vacancy and four of those applicants were never going to qualify on income or were not able to move on your date, you did not spend four hours filling a unit. You spent four hours confirming information you could have collected in a two minute form.

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When It Goes Further Than a Vacancy

Sometimes the wrong approval does not end with a lease that simply runs its course. It ends with unpaid rent.

If a tenant does not pay, the process in BC is defined and reasonably fast, but it is not free and it is not instant. You issue a 10 Day Notice to End Tenancy for Unpaid Rent or Utilities. The tenant then has five days to pay the rent in full, which cancels the notice, or to dispute it. If they do neither, you can use the Residential Tenancy Branch's Direct Request process, a written application that does not require a hearing, to seek an Order of Possession.

Costs and timelines to plan around:

• The standard RTB dispute resolution application fee is $100. A successful applicant can ask the arbitrator to order reimbursement, and fee waivers exist for low income applicants.
• The Province has invested in reducing RTB wait times, and expedited hearings target roughly twelve days, or six in urgent cases. Standard processes take longer.
• Rent continues to go unpaid throughout. That is usually the largest number in the whole exercise.
• After the tenancy ends, you still pay for the turnover and the vacancy described above.

BC does not publish a single official average for how long an application takes to reach an order of possession, so be sceptical of anyone quoting one. What you can say with confidence is that the filing fee is the smallest part of the bill.

One thing that will not rescue you here is the deposit. A security deposit and a pet damage deposit are each capped at one half of one month's rent, there is no last month's rent charge in BC, and neither was ever designed to absorb two months of arrears plus a turnover. Our guide to security deposit and pet damage deposit rules in BC covers the caps, the return deadlines, and the inspection paperwork that protects your right to claim.

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What One Bad Approval Adds Up To

Put the individual costs together and the number gets uncomfortable.

Take a $2,200 unit where the tenant stops paying in month four. This is an illustration rather than an average, but every line in it is a figure this article has already sourced.

• One month of rent goes unpaid before you act: $2,200.
• You serve a 10 Day Notice, the tenant neither pays nor disputes, and you file a Direct Request. Roughly another month of arrears accrues while that runs: $2,200.
• RTB application fee: $100.
• Turnover once you have the unit back: $1,000 to $2,500.
• Three weeks vacant while you re lease: $1,518.
• Less the security deposit you are able to apply, at most half a month: minus $1,100.

That lands somewhere between $5,900 and $7,400. The deposit only comes off the total if you ran the condition inspections properly at both ends of the tenancy, and the arrears figure assumes the tenant leaves without a contested hearing.

A screening report costs $25 to $45, and our guide to using credit data for tenant screening covers how to read one without defaulting to the score.

The comparison is not subtle, which is rather the point. What is worth adding is that none of this gets solved by screening harder at the end of the process. It gets solved by collecting the information earlier, before you have spent three weekends on showings. How to Screen Tenants Before Booking a Viewing in Canada covers the pre qualification questions themselves, and How to Avoid Tire Kickers When Renting Out Your Property covers filtering unserious inquiries at the listing stage.

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Why You Cannot Charge Anyone for It

One thing you cannot do is pass the screening cost to the applicant.

Section 15 of the Residential Tenancy Act states that a landlord must not charge a person anything for accepting an application for a tenancy, processing the application, investigating the applicant's suitability as a tenant, or accepting the person as a tenant.

This holds even if you plan to refund the fee to unsuccessful applicants, or to credit it toward the successful applicant's security deposit. RTB arbitrators have ordered landlords to refund illegal application fees. The screening cost is yours. Budget it as a cost of leasing, the same way you budget the listing. For where that sits alongside your other management costs, see our breakdown of what it costs to manage a rental property.

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FAQ

How much does it cost to leave a rental unit vacant in BC?

At typical BC rents, a vacant unit costs roughly $66 to $94 per day. At $2,000 per month that is about $66 daily, or around $1,380 for three weeks empty. With Metro Vancouver purpose built vacancy at 3.7 percent in 2025, the highest in more than thirty years, units are taking longer to re lease than they did in 2022 and 2023.

How much does a bad tenant cost a landlord in BC?

On a $2,200 unit, a tenancy that ends in unpaid rent can run between roughly $5,900 and $7,400 once you add two months of arrears, the $100 RTB filing fee, a $1,000 to $2,500 turnover, and three weeks of vacancy, less the half month security deposit. That is an illustration rather than an average, and the deposit only offsets the total if condition inspections were completed properly at both ends of the tenancy.

How much does tenant turnover cost a small landlord?

Turning over a unit typically costs between $1,000 and $2,500 for landlords with small portfolios, covering cleaning, repainting, carpet work, minor repairs, and re listing. These figures come largely from US and industry data, so treat them as directional rather than Canadian official statistics. Lost rent during the vacancy is separate and usually larger.

Can a landlord charge an application fee in BC?

No. Section 15 of the Residential Tenancy Act prohibits charging anything for accepting an application, processing it, investigating an applicant's suitability, or accepting someone as a tenant. This applies even if you intend to refund the fee or credit it toward the deposit. The landlord absorbs the cost of screening.

Do landlords have to give a reason for rejecting a rental application in BC?

No, BC landlords are generally not required to state a reason for declining an applicant. However, if a complaint is later filed, the ability to point to written criteria applied consistently to every applicant, with your reasoning documented, is your strongest defence.

How much does it cost to evict a tenant for unpaid rent in BC?

The Residential Tenancy Branch application fee is $100, and a successful applicant can ask the arbitrator to order reimbursement. The larger cost is the unpaid rent accruing while the process runs. After serving a 10 Day Notice, the tenant has five days to pay or dispute, and the Direct Request process allows a written application for an Order of Possession without a hearing. BC does not publish an official average timeline from application to possession.

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Sources

• CMHC, 2025 Rental Market Report, for vacancy rates and average rents
• Residential Tenancy Act, section 15 on application fees and sections 19 and 20 on deposit limits
• BC Human Rights Code, section 10, on tenancy protections
• BC Residential Tenancy Branch, dispute resolution and Direct Request guidance
• Ontario Human Rights Commission, rental housing and income requirements