West End Renters Triumph Against Landlords

NEWS: West End renters triumph against landlords

Source: The Westender
By: Jackie Wong
01/21/2010 12:00 AM

After more than a year of tenant-landlord conflict, residents of the West End’s Seafield apartment building were relieved last week to learn that the rent increases applied for by their landlords were overturned by the B.C. Supreme Court. The January 12 judgement by Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo called the landlords’ application for 15- to 38-per-cent increases in the 78-year-old building “patently unreasonable.”

A B.C. Supreme Court judge declared it “unreasonable” that the landlords of the West End’s Seafield apartment building (pictured) applied to increase rents by up to 38 per cent. Credit: Jackie Wong

Madame Justice Loo ordered the landlords — a brother-in-law duo who own Gordon Nelson Investments, a property management firm that purchased the Seafield in summer 2008 — to refund tenants the difference of the increased rents they had paid since April 2009, the month in which a dispute-resolution officer at the B.C. Residential Tenancy Office (RTO) controversially approved Gordon Nelson’s application for the increases. The landlords argued the increases would bring the Seafield, a 14-unit building located at 1436 Pendrell Street, up to market value.

The Seafield’s close-knit community of long-term tenants banded together to bring the dispute before the Supreme Court in November 2009, in the hope of drawing attention to what they and other tenants’ rights advocates saw as unfair legislation.

Seafield tenants will likely start receiving refunds in the form of deductions on upcoming months’ rents, although this has not been confirmed. But the tenants aren’t sure when or if they’ll be back in court, in the event that their landlords appeal the judgement. Property manager Chris Nelson told WE in an e-mail that he and Gordon Nelson Investments partner Jason Gordon will make a decision within the 30-day time frame allowed for appeal.

A statement on Gordon Nelson’s website says the company is confident that the Seafield rent increases will be restored in a re-hearing or “quite possibly result in a larger market-supported rent increase, as rents in Vancouver and the West End have continued to increase in the face of tough economic times.”

A representative from the B.C. Ministry of Housing and Social Development, who asked not to be named in this article, told WE the ministry is currently reviewing the Supreme Court decision, and that a new hearing will be scheduled in the near future.

The rent-increase issue is the last in a long line of disagreements between Seafield tenants and Gordon Nelson Investments. In fall 2008, WE reported that Seafield tenants felt threatened by Gordon Nelson’s intimations that tenants would be evicted to make way for building renovations. “After only a month of living here, I was being told I was going to get kicked out of my own home,” recalls Seafield tenant Melissa Mewdell. “I had no idea what to do about it. If these guys weren’t around to help me,” she adds, gesturing to her neighbours, who have supported each other through the conflict, “I probably would have left.”

Even though the disputes have resulted in Seafield tenants becoming extremely well versed in residential tenancy procedure, the lack of transparency they’ve experienced at the RTO has been troubling, says Mark Moore, who lives at the Seafield with his family. “You can’t find out how many of these cases there are [at the RTO]. You can’t find out how they were decided. There are no transcripts kept of any hearing. If this is where things are going to be adjudicated… it would at least be nice to know what’s going on here. This is notwithstanding the fact that we never know how many people are evicted who never go to the RTO because they don’t complain.”

Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert has been working with Seafield tenants and other local renters during their lengthy struggles with the province’s residential tenancy system. As part of efforts to resolve what he sees as gaps in B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act that leave long-term renters vulnerable to unfair rent increases, Herbert brought forward a private member’s bill in November 2008. It has not yet been reviewed in the B.C. Legislature.

“I really hope that Housing Minister Rich Coleman will look at [the Seafield] decision and will look at the evidence, which is piling up, and decide that the Residential Tenancy Act needs to be reformed,” Herbert says. “B.C. renters owe a huge debt of thanks to the Seafielders for their perseverance, but think about the huge number of people out there who don’t have those resources, who don’t have that sense of community to support each other.”

Court strikes down 38 per cent rent increase: Seafield Apartments’ owners defend attempted rent hike in West End

Court strikes down 38 per cent rent increase: Seafield Apartments’ owners defend attempted rent hike in West End

Source: Vancouver Courier

By:  Sandra Thomas

Friday, January 15, 2010

The B.C. Supreme Court overturned Tuesday a controversial ruling by the Residential Tenancy Branch last April that would have allowed a West End landlord to increase rents by up to 38 per cent.

Madam Justice Linda Loo called the initial ruling “patently unreasonable” and ordered Gordon Nelson Investments to return all of the additional rent it collected at the Seafield Apartments on Pendrell Street as a result of the April 2, 2009 decision.

Sharon Isaak, with the volunteer group Renters at Risk, said the decision is good news for B.C. tenants.

“I spoke with the tenants last night and they’re relieved and pleased,” said Isaak. “It was a good decision and they were very happy to win.”

Rent control guidelines limit annual rent increases in B.C. to 3.7 per cent, but a clause in the provincial Residential Tenancy Act allows landlords to apply for higher amounts if they can prove units in neighbouring buildings garner substantially more. Last January, Gordon Nelson Investments notified Seafield tenants of rent increases up to 73 per cent. The tenants appealed and in April the Residential Tenancy Office approved increases of up to 38 per cent.

According to that 12-page ruling by dispute resolution officer K. Miller, the landlords could raise the rent in three increments, with three months notice in between each increase. Isaak said Feb. 1 was to be the highest increase so the ruling couldn’t have come at a better time. “Some people weren’t going to be able to pay it,” she said. “So they were really worried.”

The April 2009 ruling noted the landlords didn’t have to prove rents at the Seafield are significantly lower than “all” comparable apartments, but merely prove there are “some” units with higher rents than the subject units. That meant the West End Renter’s Survey, compiled by the tenants, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s analysis of the survey weren’t considered as evidence. In this week’s ruling, Justice Loo said that information should have been considered.

Chris Nelson, with Gordon Nelson Investments, said he’s “obviously” disappointed with the ruling.

“The act clearly gives us the opportunity to ask for higher rents if they’re justified based on comparable units,” said Nelson. “And I think we did a heck of a job proving that. We even have a unit in the building we rent out for $2,200 compared to the $1,300 they’re paying for the same thing. And we just rented another unit in the building for $2,200.”

Nelson said Gordon Nelson has 30 days from the date of the decision to appeal. Justice Loo gave the landlords the option of going forward with another hearing. “Right now we’re just weighing our options,” Nelson said.

Vancouver-West End NDP MLA Spencer Herbert said if the April 2009 ruling had stood, it would have effectively meant the end to rent control in B.C.

“This is a real victory for renters,” said Herbert. “And now the renters will also be allowed to submit the evidence thrown out by the tenancy office.”

sthomas@vancourier.com

© Vancouver Courier 2010

Judge overturns rent increase in West End building

Judge overturns rent increase in West End building

Updated: Thu Jan. 14 2010 15:57:46

Source: ctvbc.ca, Darcy Wintonyk

A Vancouver landlord has been ordered to refund tenants at a West End apartment building after a B.C. Supreme Court judge overturned an almost 40 per cent rent increase.

Justice Linda Loo found that a decision by the Residential Tenancy Office (RTO) to allow landlords Gordon Nelson Investments to raise rents at Seafield Apartments in April 2009 by 38 per cent was “patently unreasonable.”

Provincial guidelines dictate rents can only increase four per cent a year but the RTO ruling saw some rents jump by $471 a month because of a clause in the Tenancy Act that allows landlords to raise rents to that of comparable suites.

Tenants at the Seafield, a 14-unit heritage building on Pendrell Street, were rocked after their new landlord demanded rent increases of 52 to 73 per cent six months after taking possession of the building in July 2008.

The RTO cut that back to between 15 and 38 per cent for 11 of 14 units.

Loo ruled some of the decision was unseasonable because the Dispute Resolution Officer didn’t look at enough comparable apartments or properly consider submissions from affected tenants.

The management company must now return all of the additional rent collected after the decision.

Sharon Isaak of Renters at Risk, an advocacy group helping renters, is thrilled with the decision.

“It’s such a relief for B.C. tenants to see that Seafield tenants got justice in the courts. A 38 per cent rent increase is completely unfair,” she told ctvbc.ca in a telephone interview.

Isaak, herself a renter in the area, said the ruling is a clear message that the clause in the Residential Tenancy Act is not meant to be used for landlords hoping to increase rent for existing tenants.

“When a tenant enters into a rental contract they expect to pay a certain amount for rent,” she said.

“For a legislator to allow an increase so huge would effectively end rent control in the area.”

Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert, who has long championed rental rights in the area, called Wednesday’s ruling “a victory for renters.”

The longest standing tenant at the Seafield, a 92-year-old man, has lived in the building since 1961.

Judge overturns rent hikes at Seafield Apartments in West End

Judge overturns rent hikes at Seafield Apartments in West End

By Matthew Burrows
Publish Date: January 13, 2010
Source: Georgia Straight Online

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has overturned rent increases of up to 38 percent for tenants at the 14-unit Seafield Apartments in Vancouver.

In her judgment, Justice Linda Loo also ordered Gordon Nelson Investments, which owns the heritage building at 1436 Pendrell Street in the West End, to return the additional rent collected since April of last year, when the hikes were imposed following a decision by a dispute-resolution officer at the Residential Tenancy Branch.

“This was a patently unreasonable error of law,” Loo wrote of the RTB decision in her judgment, which was posted on-line today (January 13).

The judge ordered that the matter be sent to another dispute-resolution officer.

“We’re back at square one, but it feels like a pretty good square to be at,” Seafield renter Melissa Mewdell told the Straight by phone today. “We were at square negative one before. This ruling is helpful, not just for us, but for other tenants. It goes a long way to explaining or clarifying the geographic rent increase law. That’s how I read it.”

Gordon Nelson Investments took over the building on July 31, 2008, and claimed the increases were justified based on what was being charged in rental apartments around the West End.

A dispute-resolution officer under the Residential Tenancy Act had issued a decision on April 2, 2009, permitting the landlord to impose rent increases of between 15 and 38 per cent on 10 units.

“This is good news for B.C. tenants,” Sharon Isaak, a West End renter and spokesperson for the group Renters at Risk told the Straight via cellphone today. “They’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

West End rent increase ‘patently unreasonable,’ judge rules

West End rent increase ‘patently unreasonable,’ judge rules

Landlord ordered to refund paid increases; new hearing to be set

By Keith Fraser, The Province
January 14, 2010

A judge has overturned a decision that allowed a landlord to raise rents in a Vancouver West End apartment building by up to 38 per cent.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo called the April 2009 ruling by the Residential Tenancy Branch to allow the increases in rents at the Seafield heritage building “patently unreasonable,” and ordered a new hearing.

The judge also ordered a refund of rent increases that were paid.

“Everybody at the Seafield is thrilled about this news,” said tenant Melissa Mewdell.

“[The next increase] would have pushed the majority of people’s rents up to the point where they wouldn’t be able to stay. This news is just in time to save the community and keep us all together. We couldn’t be happier.”

Mewdell, one of the few renters in the Pendrell Street building to escape the increases, was speaking for her fellow tenants.

Vancouver-West End NDP MLA Spencer Herbert, who has supported the renters in their battle, called the decision a “huge win” for tenants in B.C.

Rent-control guidelines limit rent increases, but the provincial Residential Tenancy Act allows landlords to apply for higher rents if they can prove units in neighbouring buildings have much higher rents.

Gordon Nelson Investments Inc., the landlord of the building, had initially demanded increases of between 53.2 and 73 per cent but, on review by the Tenancy Office, that was cut to between 15 and 38 per cent for 10 of the 14 units.

That allowed the rents for seven two-bedroom units to rise from the range of $1,325 to $1,450 per month, up to $1,833 per month, and the rent for two one-bedroom units to go from between $1,067 and $1,068 per month to $1,225 per month.

But Justice Loo found that the dispute-resolution officer, identified as K. Miller in the ruling, had failed to comply with the statutory requirement by not considering the tenants’ evidence. She found Miller was “patently unreasonable” in awarding the landlord an above-normal rent increase.