Renters rally to protect rights against unfair evictions

Renters rally to protect rights against unfair evictions

By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun May 7, 2011

NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert joins Vancouver tenants to stand up to landlords trying to evict long-term renters from a Kitsilano-Point Grey apartment complex and to call for stronger eviction protection laws in Vancouver, BC., May 7, 2011. Daved Eby (l) with Tim and Amy Bratton on the right. David Eby, NDP candidate in the provincial byelection in the Point Grey constituency, is in the background to the left of Chandra Herbert.  Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, PNG

VANCOUVER – For five years, Amy Bratton never had any trouble with the landlords of her Kitsilano suite. They even knocked money off her rent when she took care and maintained the seven-unit building.

But that all changed eight months ago when the landlords decided to sell the stucco-covered house-turned-apartment building at the corner of Balsam and 3rd Avenue to new owners.

Now Bratton and her husband Tim say they are facing a so-called “renoviction” — a tactic in which landlords attempt to kick out renters under the guise of renovating the suites before substantially raising the rents.

The trend, which began in the West End 2007, is spreading across the region as landlords use tactics such as not replacing lights and increasing laundry costs, to force long-term tenants out.

Within days of taking ownership last December, the new landlords in the Bratton’s building renovated an empty suite and raised the rent from $750 to $1,075 — the same amount the Brattons pay for their one-bedroom suite. “It’s been a real source of frustration,” Tim Bratton said. “This is a place we have made our first home in … we feel powerless to do anything about it. The current law does not provide enough protection for us as tenants.”

The Brattons were among about 30 people — including NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert and Vancouver-Point Grey byelection candidate David Eby — who rallied in the rain outside their apartment building Saturday to raise awareness of their plight and call for the Liberal government to impose stronger eviction protection laws to balance the rights of both landlords and tenants.

Many carried placards reading: Eviction: Are you next? and No tenant in B.C. safe from renoviction.

“I’ve seen this story play out again and again across B.C.,” said Herbert, who has introduced new legislation aimed at prohibiting landlords from using the tactics. “The vast majority of landlords are good. They work with residents. They don’t attempt to kick people out so they can jack up the rents.”

Herbert noted in some cases, the renovation only involves a fresh coat of paint and new cabinets yet the rent is inflated by 73 per cent.

The renoviction situation first arose in Vancouver’s West End, where residents continue to fight against what they say is a legal loophole in the Residential Tenancy Act that allows for such evictions.

Many of the people at Saturday’s rally were survivors of other apartments where renovation notices had been served.

The residents want changes to Section 49 (6) (b), of the act. It says a landlord may end a tenancy if the landlord has all the necessary permits and intends in good faith, to renovate or repair the rental unit in a manner that requires the rental unit to be vacant.

More than 50 buildings have been tracked for renovictions in the past few years, according to Sharon Isaak, of Renters at Risk, who is still at her West End apartment after fighting her own eviction notice in the courts.

But Isaak noted that many tenants tend to give in because they don’t have the time, money or energy to fight the eviction notices, especially once the landlord starts withholding services or ripping up carpets, making their home seem uninhabitable.

“Tenants don’t want to go public about it; it’s too stressful,” she said. “It wasn’t that widespread before but now more people are doing it.”

Eby, who is running against Premier Christy Clark for the Vancouver-Point Grey seat in a byelection Wednesday, promised to work with tenants and stand up for renters.

Bratton, who has lived in the suite for five years — and the last eight months with Tim after they got married — said the landlords have given them a smaller storage space with no electrical lighting and have not replaced the light bulbs at the front and back of the building.

“It’s been stressful,” she said.

Added Tim: “This has shown us how vulnerable we are as renters. You don’t know when a landlord can come in and push you around. We have the resources to move and relocate but we know a lot of people who can’t.”

19 Emerald Terrace Tenants Win 4th Dispute Against Landlord at Residential Tenancy Branch

JANUARY 23, 2010

VANCOUVER – Tenants asserting persecution and intimidation by their landlord, Hollyburn Properties Limited, have been vindicated with their most recent win at the Residential Tenancy Branch.

Emerald Terrace Residents Speak Out At Press Conference Today

Emerald Terrace is the rental building where Hollyburn has employed numerous tactics in order to circumvent a BC Supreme Court ruling preventing them from evicting tenants for cosmetic renovations. Tactics include providing misinformation to tenants through “Resident Opinion Polls” in an effort to scare them out of the building and bogus letters stating their tenancies would end. Hollyburn also tried to evict 83-year old Lynn Stevens, a 40 year tenant battling cancer, because they claimed they needed her suite for a resident manager. Hollyburn’s attempt to evict 10 pet owners in 2009 was also thwarted when those tenants filed for dispute resolution at the RTB and had the evictions set aside.

Excerpts from Dispute Resolution Officer K. Millar’s decision:

“I find that the landlord deliberately misinformed the tenants regarding the impact of the plumbing re-pipe.”

I find that the misinformation above had that effect on the tenants and that as a result they were deprived of the right to live in an environment free from intimidation.”

“While to a non-resident the Opinion Poll can be taken to show the landlord’s commitment to upgrade the building which presumably would benefit the tenants, I accept that for the residents of the building it assumed a more sinister air.”

“Emerald Terrace is the tip of the iceberg” explains resident Cynthia Holmes. “These tactics have been exposed only because the tenants in this building had the wherewithal to fight. There is something wrong with the system and the legislation when landlord accountability is entirely dependent on tenant action.”

“Although the amount awarded really does not adequately compensate us for our troubles, I am happy that the decision is in our favour” says 82-year old tenant Les McBride. “My wife Olwen passed away and I believe the stress and anxiety caused by Hollyburn had a significant impact on her health during her final days.”

 

Rent-Hike Conflict-Landlords want tenants to pay for higher taxes

Rent-hike conflict

Source: The Westender

Article By: Jackie Wong , 05/05/2010 12:00 AM

Landlords in B.C. usually exercise their right to subject tenants to an annual rent increase as allowed by the province’s Residential Tenancy Branch, which is currently set at a maximum of 3.2 per cent. However, after learning that several rental-management associations want to lobby to raise that annual increase, Martha Lewis, a member of Vancouver’s Tenant Resource Advisory Centre (TRAC), is concerned that renters could be dramatically impacted if their wish is fulfilled.

Martha Lewis, of the Tenant Resource Advisory Centre, says raising B.C.’s allowable annual rent increase could dramatically impact tenants, many of whom are already struggling. Credit: Doug Shanks

Lewis says members of the Victoria-based Rental Owners and Managers Association are interested in changing the current rent-increase formula — the cost of living plus two per cent — to factor in utility expenses and property taxes. That would place rental apartments on the same playing field as what are known as ‘manufactured home parks,’ or mobile homes.

“If the landlords are given a free hand like that, the government will have no control, no oversight, into what the landlords are doing,” Lewis told WE in a phone interview, going on to explain that recent interest in raising the annual allowable rent increase may be due to financial pressure from property-tax increases. “[Landlords of large properties] have these big increases in their property taxes because the value of their property went up in recent years, and they want to pass on the cost to the tenant, even though all the benefit goes to the landlords,” Lewis says. “Affordability is a big problem for tenants already.”

Lewis met with B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman last week to alert him to the potential implications of these changes. “We want the government to actually put some real thought into this… ahead of time,” Lewis says. Coleman told Lewis he couldn’t deny that landlords’ costs have gone up, but also acknowledged tenants are already facing problems with affordability.

“It’s kind of getting to be a really vicious circle,” says Marg Gordon, CEO of the BC Apartment Owners and Managers Association (BCOMA), who has been in touch with Lewis about TRAC’s concerns. “The problem that’s happening is the rent-control formula is not addressing the real needs of landlords insofar as operating expenses. It’s getting to the point where some landlords, who haven’t experienced vacancies in almost a decade, are now experiencing vacancy losses. That’s not a huge issue yet, but it’s certainly something to keep your eye on.”

Gordon is even more concerned about the potential impact of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on landlords. “Unfortunately for our sector, it’s an anomaly, in that there is no tax on rent — we have nothing to claim against,” she says. “The HST, if it’s supposed to be a consumer-inducer tax, it’s not working in our case. We’re asking for the ability to have input tax credits, so that we could, like any other business, claim the expense.”

Gordon acknowledges that landlords can’t transfer the HST onto tenants, nor do they want to. “That still doesn’t solve the problem we’re facing with the average age of buildings in Vancouver being 58 years old — aging and in need of major repairs,” she says. “Our fear is not only attracting new people into the landlord business, but it’s also that nobody’s building purpose-built rental buildings because you can’t make the numbers work.”

TRAC- The Danger of Raising Allowable Rent Increases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 14, 2010-  The Danger of raising allowable rent increases

Vancouver— TRAC Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre is warning tenants throughout BC about the dangers of the apartment owners’ campaign to raise the allowable rate of rent increases.

First, the cumulative impact on tenants will add to the serious situation of BC having the most unaffordable rental housing in the country.

Secondly, the landlords do not need to have the Residential Tenancy Regulation changed because they already have an avenue to ask for above-guideline increases.

Thirdly, there is no indication that landlords are currently suffering financial losses or facing bankruptcy because of the existing Regulation.
Since 2004, the Regulation has allowed landlords to increase rents once a year at a rate of Cost of Living (i.e. Inflation) plus 2%. The average weekly wage in BC increased 16.6% between 2004 and 2009, and this was outpaced by the allowable rental rate increase which was 21.8%. If landlords could have increased rates by Cost of Living plus 3.5%, rents for sitting tenants would have increased almost 31%.

Since 2004, the Regulation has allowed landlords to increase rents once a year at a rate of Cost of Living (i.e. Inflation) plus 2%. The average weekly wage in BC increased 16.6% between 2004 and 2009, and this was outpaced by the allowable rental rate increase which was 21.8%. If landlords could have increased rates by Cost of Living plus 3.5%, rents for sitting tenants would have increased almost 31%.

Also, landlords can charge whatever the market will bear when they get a new tenant.

Landlords can already apply under section 23 of the Regulation to increase rents at a higher rate if they can prove financial loss due to increased operating costs, unforeseen repairs or other reasons. We searched the government website for decisions and found only two decisions in 2009-10. One landlord succeeded partially and the other lost because the Dispute Resolution Officer found that the repairs were not unforeseen.
We urge renters throughout BC to tell their MLAs that they must not support the landlords’ campaign.

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Earnings and Employment Trends: Provincial Comparison – Average Weekly Wage Rate. <http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/pubs/eet/eetdata.pdf&gt;

Gordon Nelson Investments Drop Appeal Of Seafield Supreme Court decision overturning RTO’s 38% rent increases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gordon Nelson Abandon Appeal of Decision Denying them a 38% Rent Increase

Residents of the Seafield Apartments learned yesterday that landlords Gordon Nelson Investments dropped their appeal of Madam Justice Loo’s Supreme Court decision denying them a 38% rent increase.

This is a big win for all renters in Vancouver and BC at large as the decision, which now goes unchallenged, helps to clarify the law around geographic area rent increases.

The decision shows that landlords aren’t entitled to an additional rent increase simply because a couple of tenants pay higher rents in a similar unit; Dispute Resolution Officers must look at all the evidence about the whole market for similar units in the same area, not just the evidence dealing with a few higher rents.

Justice Loo also expressed doubt that the rent increase legislation is meant to let a landlord use the higher rents it is getting for newly rented units to bootstrap up the rent in other units in the same building.

While this is a major win for Seafield tenants too, the case is still supposed to be reheard at the Residential Tenancy Office (RTO), which adjudicates disputes between landlords and tenants under the Province’s Residential Tenancy Act. Residents have not been informed of any hearing date.

Background

Jason Gordon and Chris Nelson of Gordon Nelson Investments filed an application for a rent increase at the Seafield of up to 73% in January 2009.

The pair made their application under the additional rent increase section of the residential tenancy act.  This section allows landlords to receive a higher than normal annual rent increase if they can show that residents in their building pay significantly lower rents than those in similar buildings in the same geographical area. (The normal increase for 2009 was 3.7%.)

Despite the breadth and quality of the tenants’ evidence, Dispute Resolution Officer K. Miller of the RTO did not consider the tenants evidence and granted Gordon Nelson Investments a 38% rent increase in April 2009.

Seafield residents applied for a Judicial Review of the 38% rent increase in August 2009, and the Supreme Court of British Columbia set aside the RTO’s decision because it was found to be “patently unreasonable” in January 2010.

Residents at the 14-unit apartment building in Vancouver’s West End have been pressured by Gordon Nelson Investments since the former Bodog executives purchased the building in the summer of 2008.

All original tenants in the building are still living in their apartments, despite more than a year and a half of threats to their ongoing tenancies.