'I'm back to square one': Halifax woman loses apartment after refusing to pay illegal deposit

When Kirsten Parnell went to sign a lease for a one-bedroom apartment in Halifax two weeks ago, she thought her gruelling search for a place to live was over. She was wrong. 

Before securing the apartment, Parnell was asked to provide a co-signer and pay first and last months' rent on top of a damage deposit. That totalled $2,750 and would have nearly emptied her savings account. 

She was so desperate, she initially considered paying the money in the face of Nova Scotia's housing crisis and difficulties finding an affordable one-bedroom apartment in Halifax.

But she did some research, and discovered the rental company's request is illegal.

"I actually waited until I came to the appointment to sign the lease so I could speak to them face-to-face about it," Parnell said. "I was then told to either illegally pay them the funds or I was denied the apartment."

She left with no lease signed, and no apartment. 

According to Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, what happened to Parnell is not an isolated incident.

Mark Culligan, a community legal worker with the service, said a landlord asking for an illegal application fee is common and the housing crisis is making it worse.

"Many of the companies that do this have been doing this for a long time," said Culligan. "I think part of what we're seeing now is people are more desperate, so they're putting up with it in a way that they might not have before, because there's so few choices."

Parnell was forced to move in with family.

"It's heartbreaking because I know I'm back to square one," she said. "And there's thousands of people in Halifax looking for apartments right now and they're in the same situation as me."

Parnell said the search for housing is exhausting, on top of working full time.

"I spend hours a day online bouncing from different search engines, Kijiji, Facebook marketplace, even going to specific rental company pages and reaching out with phone calls, emails, text messages, anything you can to contact someone who might have an apartment available," she said.

According to the Residential Tenancies Act, "No landlord shall demand, accept or receive from a tenant as a security deposit a sum of money ... in excess of one half of the rent per month."