As a Canadian landlord, reliable rent collection is essential for steady cash flow and less admin stress. Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) lets you automatically withdraw rent directly from a tenant’s bank account on scheduled dates – no more chasing cheques, e-transfers, or late payments.
What is PAD and How Does It Work?
PAD is regulated by Payments Canada, allowing secure, automatic withdrawals with tenant authorization. Landlords set up a PAD agreement (including amount, frequency, and cancellation terms), often using a void cheque or online form.
In provinces like British Columbia and Ontario, provincial tenancy laws require payment methods to be mutually agreed upon in the tenancy agreement. Landlords generally cannot force PAD as the sole method without tenant consent, especially mid-tenancy, to avoid undue hardship, but offering it as an option can encourage adoption.
Key Benefits for Landlords
Self-managing landlords may wonder what benefit setting up PAD may bring them. After all, they may only have a handful of units they collect rent from. However, whether you have 5, 50 or 500, there are long-term benefits; the landlords that we work with have been able to significantly:
- Reduce late payments by automating the process,
- Upgrade security with encrypted banking channels – no more lost or bounced cheques
- Enhance efficiency and organization – cutting time spent on manual collections, deposits, logging entries and/or reconciliations
- Improve cash flow predictability for mortgages and maintenance, and
- Decrease environmental impact by being fully paperless, improving sustainability
- Increase preparation for smooth growth and expansion
In competitive markets like Toronto or Vancouver, offering PAD as a convenient option attracts reliable tenants.
Setting Up PAD with Streamline Landlord Service (SLS)
Setup is simple: Start by obtaining, or making sure you have a signed tenant consent via a PAD agreement form. From there, SLS makes it seamless by partnering with Rotessa, a trusted Canadian PAD processor, to handle secure scheduling and bank transfers with low flat fees. You’ll have to get your identity validated and an account approved. Once that’s done, landlords can configure regular monthly payments or one-time transactions and manage multiple bank accounts if you so wish.
This integration ensures compliance and reliability – users report faster collections and fewer disputes.
Why Choose SLS?
Streamline Landlord Service is built by Canadian landlords for landlords, offering an intuitive, all-in-one platform that simplifies rental management. PAD powered by Rotessa is just one way SLS saves landlords time and money.
Ready to automate rent and streamline your portfolio? Visit https://streamlinels.com to start today! Or if you’re already set up on our platform, but don’t have PAD going just yet, visit this link to see the step-by-step guide of getting it set up: https://streamlinels.com/accepting-and-configuring-pre-authorized-debit/#registering-to-accept-pad.