Quick answer
Check three things: the tank, the bills and your closing documents. A rental tank carries a Reliance or Enercare sticker (older ones say Direct Energy or Union Energy) and an asset tag. A rental also shows as a monthly line on the gas bill or a separate statement, and in the rental items clause of your purchase agreement. No sticker, no charge and no clause means you own it.
To know if your water heater is rented or owned, check three things in this order: the labels on the tank, the bills, and the closing documents from when you bought the house. Any one of them can settle it in five minutes. If all three come up empty, a call to Reliance and to Enercare with your address finishes the job. Do it before booking any repair or replacement, because the answer decides who pays.
What to look for on the tank itself
- A rental company sticker on the jacket with a service phone number: Reliance Home Comfort or Enercare on newer tanks, Direct Energy or Union Energy on older ones.
- An asset tag: a small barcode or numbered label separate from the manufacturer's rating plate. Rental companies track their tanks by that number.
- A "property of" statement, sometimes printed on the same label as the service number.
- The rating plate, which gives the serial number and the manufacture date. Write both down; the rental company will ask for them, and so will anyone quoting a replacement.
A sticker is strong evidence, not proof. A previous owner may have bought the tank out and left the label on, and an installer's own service sticker does not make a tank a rental. A tank with only a manufacturer's label and a contractor's sticker is usually owned.
Which rental company it is likely to be in Halton, Hamilton and Peel
The name on the tank tends to follow the old gas utility map. Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville and Milton were Union Gas territory before the 2019 merger into Enbridge Gas, and the rental tanks there came from Union Energy, which became Reliance Home Comfort. Mississauga, Brampton and Toronto were on the Enbridge side, where rental tanks were later branded Direct Energy and are now Enercare. A 1970s–90s subdivision house whose tank has never been bought out is very likely still on one of those two accounts.
The paper trail: bills, closing documents and title
- The gas bill: some rentals are billed through the Enbridge Gas bill. Look past the gas charges for a line carrying another company's name.
- A separate statement or pre-authorised payment: many rentals are billed directly by the rental company, monthly or quarterly, so check bank and card statements for a recurring charge.
- The agreement of purchase and sale: the rental items clause lists equipment the buyer agreed to take over. If the water heater is named there, it was rented on closing day.
- Your lawyer's closing file: it should hold the rental company's name, the account transfer and sometimes the buyout figure.
- The property title: rental companies used to register a Notice of Security Interest against the house. Ontario stopped new registrations for consumer goods in 2024, but an old entry is a clear sign a rental existed; what a NOSI is explains how they are dealt with.
Why ownership matters before a repair or a replacement
If the tank is rented, repairs are normally the rental company's job and are covered by the monthly fee, so paying a contractor to fix it is money spent on someone else's equipment. Call the number on the sticker first. If the tank is owned, the repair is yours: a diagnostic visit runs $90–$150, credited to the repair if you go ahead, and most water heater repairs land at $150–$800.
Replacement is where the mistake gets expensive. A rented tank hauled away with the scrap leaves an open account and a possible charge for the tank, on top of what you paid for the new one. An owned replacement runs $1,200–$2,500 installed, and with a rental the return authorisation has to come before the swap. Who pays for repairs on rented equipment covers the grey areas.
What to do if you still cannot tell
Call both companies with the service address and the serial number and ask whether an active rental account exists there. Ask for the answer by email. If neither has an account, no rental line appears on any bill and the purchase agreement lists no rental items, treat the tank as yours. A technician on site can also read the date code and tell you how much life the tank likely has left.
When ZK Mechanical quotes a water heater in Burlington, Oakville, Hamilton or Mississauga, the sticker is the first thing we look at, because it changes the quote. If yours turns out to be rented, our rental buyout and replacement service walks through the provider's process step by step. More questions like this one are in the water heater answers, or send us a photo of the tank's labels and we will tell you what we see.