Renovictions top rental housing concerns: Report
Stopping renovictions tops B.C.’s rental housing recommendations
Dan Fumano
The Province
A call to stop renovictions was first among 23 recommendations in a B.C. government task force report issued Wednesday and described as the first comprehensive review of the province’s tenancy legislation in 16 years.
Renoviction is the practice of landlords evicting long-term tenants from their homes to renovate and then find new residents at significantly higher rents. The word, not in use 16 years ago when B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act was last overhauled, has become commonplace in many B.C. municipalities, especially in cities like Vancouver and Victoria with low vacancy rates and soaring rents.
In recent years, tenants’ advocates have called for putting a stop to renovictions, and last week, Vancouver city council passed a motion to that end. But on Wednesday, some of those advocates questioned if changes proposed by the B.C. government’s report were strong enough.
At the same time, many landlords likely breathed a sigh of relief that the province recommended that rent controls continue to be tied to the tenant, and not the unit, meaning there is no limit on what rent a landlord can charge a new tenant, other than what the market will bear.
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Wednesday that the task force “hit the nail on the head when they said renovictions was the core of what they wanted to address.”
“There were actually not just concerns from renters, but also from the development community and landlords themselves, who are very worried that the reputation of their industry is being tarnished by some bad apples,” Stewart said.
The task force was appointed in April by Premier John Horgan. It was chaired by Spencer Chandra Herbert, NDP MLA for Vancouver-West End, and included Adam Olsen, Green MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, and Ronna-Rae Leonard, NDP MLA for Courtenay-Comox.
Wednesday’s report states that a lack of clear guidance around renovations “has left rental housing providers and renters vulnerable to misinterpretation or abuse of the Act.”
The report recommends changes to the Residential Tenancy Act to allow tenants to remain in their homes during renovations, if they’re willing to live with construction disruption, and notes: “Evictions for renovations should be reserved for the rare instance of serious, major and long-term renovations, such as seismic upgrades, which extend the life of a building considerably, where it is impossible to keep tenants in the building due to health and safety risks.”
David Hutniak, CEO of LandlordBC, which represents the rental housing industry, said Wednesday: “This is largely how our members operate currently, so additional clarification within the Act will likely have value for both landlords and renters.”
Hutniak also praised the recommendation against tying rent controls to the unit, also known as “vacancy control,” calling it “a very positive outcome,” citing “the negative consequences to both renters and landlords alike if vacancy control were enacted.”
“The task force clearly wishes to see continued investment in existing rental stock and new building of rental with this recommendation,” Hutniak said.
But Vancouver Coun. Jean Swanson, a longtime advocate for renters, said the proposed anti-renoviction measures were “too weak,” adding “it’s a crime they didn’t go for vacancy control.”
Several groups representing low- and moderate-income renters around B.C. also issued statements Wednesday following the report’s release, urging the provincial government “to implement vacancy control immediately despite today’s announcement.”
Liam McClure of the Vancouver Tenants Union said: “Unfortunately, the (task force)’s proposal to ‘stop renovictions’ does so in name only.”
“What is proposed is a framework by which some renovations are grounds for eviction and others are not,” McClure said.
The motion passed last week by Vancouver’s council, introduced by Swanson, sought changes to city policy to “require landlords to offer displaced tenants the opportunity to temporarily move out for the necessary duration of the renovations without their leases ending or rent increasing.”
However, the provincial task force stopped short of making that recommendation.
Renters’ advocates and landlords are now awaiting a decision in a B.C. Court of Appeal case heard last month, which could provide more clarity on whether a landlord can end a tenancy — and increase rent — if the tenant wants to temporarily vacate a unit during renovations and then return.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing will review the task force’s recommendations in the coming weeks to consider how they might be implemented.
Other recommendations in the task force report include:
- Work with local governments to develop tenant compensation and relocation guidelines in the case of demolition of purpose-built rental to reduce dislocation and homelessness of affected tenants.
- Investigate other options to increase the repayment rate for damages, nonpayment of rent and other storage costs if ordered by the Residential Tenancy Branch.
- Increase the availability of currently empty strata housing by eliminating a strata corporation’s ability to ban owners from renting their own strata units.
- Work with local governments to develop, implement and enforce short-term rental rules to better protect long-term rental stock.
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