How to protect yourself against ‘renoviction’ as rental markets heat up

Calgary –

With Canada’s already-hot rental market anticipated to return underneath much more strain in 2023, specialists say tenants ought to guard towards “renoviction” by educating themselves about their rights.

The time period renoviction is used to explain a state of affairs when a landlord cites the necessity for main renovations as the rationale behind an eviction. While most Canadian jurisdictions have guidelines in place to guard tenants — resembling limiting the sorts of repairs that justify requiring renters to maneuver out, or specifying how a lot discover a landlord should give — tenant advocates say the follow nonetheless occurs often.

For instance, a current report from Ontario’s Advocacy Centre for Tenants (ACTO) discovered there was a 294 per cent enhance in landlord purposes to evict tenants for renovations or conversions on the province’s Landlord and Tenant Board since 2015-16.

Douglas Kwan, ACTO’s director of advocacy and authorized providers, stated he is additionally seeing a rise in “own-use evictions,” the place a landlord claims to want to take a unit again in order that they or a member of the family can transfer in.

Both of those practices, Kwan stated, are generally utilized by landlords to eliminate current tenants to allow them to hire flats to new tenants at a a lot larger charge.

“We’re seeing all types of situations in which landlords are seeking to end the tenancy to take advantage of the market,” Kwan stated.

“These instances are increasing.”

According to a November report from Rentals.ca, common rents in Canada have elevated 10.5 per cent in 2022, in comparison with the pre-pandemic common from November 2019.

In the costliest markets of Vancouver and Toronto, rents have elevated by roughly 24 per cent within the final 12 months alone, in response to the identical report.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. warned earlier this fall that it anticipates elevated strain on rental markets in 2023, as rising rates of interest put dwelling possession out of attain for extra Canadians.

That might imply extra folks will discover themselves in an identical state of affairs to Jonathan Roth, a Vancouver resident who discovered himself dealing with an eviction discover in May of this yr, for an condo he had lived in since 2017.

“It was rough,” stated Roth, who stated the constructing he lived in was purchased by new house owners, who one month later indicated they wished everybody out for renovations.

Roth stated he was lucky in that the landlords provided everybody six months’ value of hire to get out inside 30 days. (Under B.C. regulation, landlords should supply renovicted tenants one month’s value of hire.)

“I think they just wanted us out without any headaches,” he stated.

“Just doing a Google search, it looks like apartments in that building are now going for $2,700 a month, which is about $1,000 more than what I was paying.”

Kayla Andrade, founding father of Ontario Landlords Watch — a gaggle that advocates on behalf of the province’s small landlords — denies that renovictions are occurring in important numbers.

However, she stated she believes hire management insurance policies in provinces like Ontario are decreasing the general housing inventory, and not directly resulting in some evictions.

“Landlords are seeing all of their expenses increase, and they have no way to increase the rent,” Andrade stated.

“Some landlords are just leaving the industry completely, and taking the units back. So we are seeing some own-use evictions.”

In most jurisdictions, landlords want the permission of the Landlord and Tenant Board earlier than they’ll evict tenants for the aim of renovations.

But many tenants might not know that, and will transfer out as quickly as a landlord asks them to.

“I think a lot of tenants just walk away, because fighting it is too hard,” stated Lesli Boldt, who was evicted in 2018 from the Vancouver condo she’d lived in for greater than a decade.

Boldt, who ran for metropolis council in 2022 partially due to that have, stated she wasn’t capable of show that what had occurred in her case was a renoviction, since her landlord informed her a member of the family wanted the unit.

“What I do know is I lost my home of 13 years,” she stated.

“So I would advise people to find out what your rights are before you’re evicted … Be very clear what kind of rental agreement you’re signing, and document your communications with your landlord.”

Kwan stated there are issues tenants can do to guard themselves, crucial of which is realizing the principles within the metropolis and province you reside in.

“If you receive a letter or notice that your landlord intends to evict you, obtain legal advice,” Kwan stated.

“Make sure you have the right information before you take that next step, because sometimes that notice is not in compliance with the law, and that landlord may have no right to evict you.”

Tenants may also work proactively to construct a superb relationship with their present landlord, Kwan stated, by being clear, courteous, and paying hire on time.

However, from Kwan’s perspective, renovictions, own-use evictions, and different related landlord practices are unlikely to go away till governments do extra to handle Canada’s reasonably priced housing disaster.

“There is not enough supply of rental housing in Ontario, just like everywhere else,” Kwan stated.

“What tenants really need right now is for governments to commit funds to provide true affordable housing.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Dec. 22, 2022.