What a RentSafeTO score
does and doesn't tell you

A RentSafeTO score rates one narrow thing, and rates it reasonably well: how a building's common areas and shared systems measure up to City maintenance standards, on a checklist, at a single inspection. It is a useful baseline. It is not a livability score, and a high green rating does not mean a building is a good place to live.

That last number is the whole point in one statistic: 259 buildings (9% of all green-rated buildings) carry an overall green score while the City's own inspectors scored at least one area, like elevators, pests, or cleanliness, at the lowest possible level. The headline colour can hide a failing category.

What the score does tell you

RentSafeTO is Toronto's audit program for purpose-built rental buildings with at least three storeys and ten units. City staff inspect each building on a schedule and score it out of 100 across a set of common areas and building systems. Since June 2026 the resulting colour, green, yellow, or red, must be posted at the entrance.

• An objective, comparable baseline. Every covered building is scored on the same rubric, so the number means the same thing across buildings.
• Common-area and systems upkeep. Lobbies, hallways, elevators, mechanical and security systems, parking, grounds, garbage handling, and similar shared areas.
• Category detail and history. Each building has sub-scores by area and a record over time, which say more than the single headline number.
• An enforcement signal. A low score means the building faces more City scrutiny.

What it doesn't tell you

This is where a score alone will mislead you, and where reviews from people who actually live there matter.

• Inside your unit. The inspection focuses on shared areas, not individual apartments. Pests, mould, heat, or water problems in a specific unit can go unreflected in the score.
• Management. Whether repairs actually get done, whether anyone answers, how deposits and move-out are handled. None of that is in the number.
• Rent and increases. The score says nothing about whether the rent is fair or whether the landlord is pursuing above-guideline increases.
• Structural and capital condition. A leaking roof or deferred major repair you can't see from the lobby may not move the score until it visibly fails.
• It is a snapshot. A score reflects one inspection. Buildings change hands, staff, and condition between visits, and because the inspection covers common areas on a known schedule, cosmetic sprucing-up can lift a score without fixing what tenants live with day to day.

How to read a score before you rent

1. Treat it as a floor, not a verdict. A red or yellow score is a real warning. A green score is a decent baseline, not a promise.
2. Open the sub-scores and history. A green building with a category scored 1 out of 3, or a score that jumped recently, tells you more than the colour.
3. Pair it with resident reviews. The score covers the building's shared upkeep; residents cover the rest. You want both.
4. Remember condos have no score at all. RentSafeTO does not cover condominiums, so for a condo the resident record is all there is.

Look up any Toronto building to see its score, the category breakdown, its history, and resident reviews side by side: search a building →. Related: what the green, yellow, and red signs mean and why condos get no rating.

Source: City of Toronto, RentSafeTO: Apartment Building Standards. Building scores and category results on this site come from City of Toronto Open Data.