Vancouver racist rental requirement is illegal, but tough to prove in court: lawyer

An online rental listing in Vancouver that specified “No Indian” would be illegal to enforce, but a lawyer says it could be tough for those it discriminates against to pursue legal action.

On Monday, a Craigslist listing was posted for a one-bedroom apartment near the PNE grounds that said “No Indian (because they don’t pay rent, and damaged my place),” along with a number of other stipulations. After about 12 hours of being active, the listing was modified, omitting the part in question.

An online rental listing in Vancouver at one point specified “No Indian” among a slew of other requirements. A lawyer says while such discrimination is illegal in rental agreements, it can be hard to prove. (Screenshot via Craigslist)

CityNews contacted the number on the listing. When asked about the listing description over text message, the poster indicated a previous tenant of South Asian descent didn’t pay their rent and left the apartment in poor condition

A lawyer with the Tenant Resource Advisory Centre (TRAC), Robert Patterson, says not only is it illegal to refuse tenancy based on race, but it’s also against the law to do so on the basis of income as was also specified in the listing.

“I think clearly this is a listing that looks like it could run afoul of our human rights laws here in British Columbia [in] a couple of different ways. I think it also could run afoul of our tenancy laws in British Columbia a couple of different ways, even after it is amended to remove some references to specific groups or classes of people,” he said.

The problem, Patterson says, is that those laws can only be enforced if someone is actually refused tenancy. He adds it can be difficult to prove to a court that the refusal was done so with discriminatory intent.

“I think one of the challenges with sort of policing human rights obligations specifically when it comes around to who a landlord chooses to enter into a tenancy with is that it can be very hard for a person to prove that sort of connection between their protected ground and the discrimination they face,” he explained.

“We have a discriminatory effect that can be very challenging for tenants to litigate that to bring it forward and actually, you know, find justice in that situation.”

‘Room for discrimination’ in rental housing market: Patterson

Given Metro Vancouver’s near-zero vacancy rate for rentals, Patterson says it can open the door for landlords to discriminate on who they rent to.

“A landlord can say, ‘I pick one over the other’ for any number of reasons when you have hundreds of applicants for a single unit,” he said. “There is a lot of room for discrimination and discriminatory intent to play a part in who gets housing and who doesn’t.”

Patterson says this all points to a larger, systemic problem with the way rental housing is handled in B.C.

“Individuals have to go out and find other individuals to enter into contracts for housing. It’s hard to sort of regulate that market on an individual-by-individual basis and what we end up with is putting the responsibility on those people in that system, often the people who are being discriminated against, to try and come up with a way to make their claim at the Human Rights Tribunal,” he said.

One fix, Patterson suggests, is to revamp the province’s whole housing system more in line with subsidized housing, where there is more government oversight to protect against discrimination.

“It’s obviously a large step to go from our housing approach in B.C. right now, which is generally to leave it up to the public market, leave it to investors and individuals to provide the housing and to decide who gets that housing, to shift into a more public housing-centred model,” he said.

If you feel like you’re being discriminated against by a landlord, Patterson recommends contacting the BC Human Rights Tribunal.