British Columbia: RTB Begins Publishing Monetary Orders

Once the database went live, monetary orders issued from July 31, 2025 onward are published with landlord and tenant names, the dispute file number, the rental property address, the amount owed, and who is responsible for paying it. [Cite: Government of BC, "Publication of monetary orders and exemption request"]

Publication doesn't happen immediately. The RTB waits at least 15 days after the decision before posting it. That gap exists specifically to give the party named in the order a window to request an exemption before the information goes public, not as an arbitrary administrative delay.

The exemption process, and who actually qualifies

An exemption request has to be submitted within that 15-day window, using Form RTB-59, sent to the RTB's dedicated exemption email address with "Exemption Request" in the subject line. [Cite: Government of BC, "Publication of monetary orders and exemption request"]

Qualifying isn't automatic just because someone would prefer not to be named. The RTB grants an exemption to people who can demonstrate that publication creates a credible threat to their safety, and who also meet at least one of a specific set of conditions: they've experienced family or intimate partner violence, they work in the justice sector (law enforcement, prosecutors, judges), they're subject to a protective order or active safety plan, or they face a specific threat from a third party. General discomfort with having a name and address searchable isn't, on its own, a qualifying reason.

It's also worth knowing this exemption is order-specific, not a standing protection. If the same person is named in a different monetary order later, they need to submit a new request for that order.

How to actually use this for a screening decision

If you're checking a prospective tenant or landlord's history before signing anything, search the database by name, but treat a blank result carefully. The database only covers monetary orders issued from July 31, 2025 forward, so someone with an unresolved dispute from 2024 won't show up here at all, and an approved safety exemption will also keep an otherwise-qualifying order out of search results.

That means the database is useful as one input, particularly for recent disputes, but it isn't a substitute for asking a prospective tenant or landlord directly about their rental history, and it shouldn't be treated as a complete background check on its own. A landlord screening an applicant, for instance, might find nothing under that applicant's name and reasonably take that as a good sign for the period the database actually covers, while still asking for references that reach further back than July 2025.