B.C. portal to protect renters from bad-faith evictions goes live Thursday

On Thursday, a new portal is going live with the goal of protecting renters from so-called bad-faith evictions in B.C.

As of July 18, landlords in the province will be required to use the Landlord Use Web Portal when they want to end a tenancy for personal occupancy or caretaker use.

“Landlords generating notices to end tenancy will be required to include information about the persons moving into the home,” the B.C. government explains.

“Through this process, landlords are informed of the significant penalties they could face if they are found to be evicting a tenant in bad faith.”

The province says requiring landlords to provide information about who will be moving into the home on the notice will give tenants “a better sense of the landlords’ intentions,” and will give tenants more information if they should they want to dispute an eviction.

The Ministry of Housing has said the portal will also allow the province to gauge how often evictions occur under personal-use provisions, which some landlords use under “false pretenses.”

Landlords BC CEO David Hatniak says the site was created quickly, so hurdles are bound to happen. However, he doesn’t feel the portal will be an issue for most landlords, so long as there’s more awareness and education around it.

“[The province has] got a pretty good track record for listening to make sure whatever platforms such as this are working well, so I know that they expect they’ll have to make some changes, improvements over the coming months,” he told CityNews Wednesday.

“It’s fair to say that they’ve put this together fairly quickly, so we expect that they’re going to build more robust education around it. But right now, it’s a pretty basic tool.”

Also starting Thursday, landlords will be required to provide tenants with more notice and time to dispute an eviction. Prior to July 18, the notice period was two months when a tenant was being evicted for personal or caretaker use. As of July 18, the notice period will have to be four months.

Additionally, tenants will also have 30 days to dispute Notices to End Tenancy, as opposed to the current 15 days they are given.

“The person moving into the home must occupy it for a minimum of 12 months and landlords who evict in bad faith could be ordered to pay the displaced tenant 12 months’ rent,” the province explains.

The extended notice period, however, may have unintended consequences, says Hutniak.

“There’s a lot of people who are selling a home that’s currently tenanted and the new owner doesn’t want to be a landlord. Now, all of a sudden, this becomes potentially six months, and that could have a lot of impacts,” he said.

Per the Residential Tenancy Act, a landlord is able to evict a tenant if they or a close family member (a parent, spouse, or child) are moving in, if a buyer or close family friend of a buyer moves in, or if a superintendent for the building moves in.