Tenants decry B.C. government shortening ‘landlord-use’ eviction notice times

Vancouver tenants are calling out an alleged policy imbalance after the B.C. government announced new regulations, making evictions more efficient for landlords.

Beginning in summer, the new regulations will loosen the requirements for when a landlord must notify a tenant about taking over the property for personal use.

The notice period is going down from four months to just three months’ advance notice.

Some in B.C. say the system already unfairly places the burden on tenants, and the new regulations will only make things worse.

“Tenants are not asking to be evicted sooner,” said Robert Patterson, staff lawyer at Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre (TRAC).

The Vancouver Tenants Union (VTU) says the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) overwhelmingly makes decisions in favour of landlords and claims the new rules will fast-track abuse of evictions for landlord use as a loophole.

With help from the union, Abby Leung has been fighting a landlord-use eviction through the RTB for more than four months.

“The process is really long and complicated, the tenants need time to navigate the resources. Even four months is impossible to find an affordable place, particularly for long-term tenants and seniors,” said Leung.

William Gladman with the VTU says tenants need more time to dispute evictions with the branch, not less.

“We’ve seen it with Abby and other members who have gone through evictions and who get bewildering decisions that don’t make any sense or resemble what the law actually is,” said Gladman.

Warren Bowen, a tenant legal advocate at TRAC, says landlords spend only a handful of minutes filing and serving eviction notices, whereas tenants need hours of time and effort to dispute them.

“And even when tenants successfully dispute their eviction, there is nothing stopping a landlord from serving another one the very next day,” said Bowen.

B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the critics have the wrong idea about the regulation changes, claiming there are barriers in place to prevent abuse.

“What we’ve done is aligned the changes from sale-of-property [evictions] to personal-use [evictions] to lineup for three months… And so it doesn’t change that fundamentally at all,” said Kahlon, adding that the decision to shorten the notice period came as the province’s vacancy rate increased.

Gladman says the union has long been advocating for vacancy control — tying rent increases to available units rather than tenants.

“[Vacancy control] just strips away the incentive for landlords to do illegal evictions. If they can’t jack up the rent between tenants, then they’re not going to try so hard to get rid of people,” Gladman explained.

The minister denies the notion that the system is unbalanced in landlords’ favour, saying he hears from landlords who feel the system is rigged against them.

Also beginning in summer, the Residential Tenancy Branch will begin publishing monetary orders that arise from dispute resolution hearings.

The province says publishing the orders that cover renter issues like not paying for rent or utilities and landlord issues like illegal evictions and failing to maintain living conditions will help with transparency and consistency between other tribunals.

Kahlon says the change will be a benefit to all.

“We know the majority of landlords and tenants act in good faith and rarely have issues, but there are a small percentage on both ends of the spectrum that cause the majority of the challenges. What we’re trying to do is shine a light on that, and at the same time ensure there’s protections for everyone else,” he said.

Critics say, with an unbalanced system, those publications will only serve to make it harder for tenants who have struggled with making payments at any time in their past to find a new place to live.

The province says the “improvements” have been funded through a $15.6-million investment to enhance services at the Residential Tenancy Branch, which Kahlon says has boosted efficiency for all.

“For basic [tenancy-dispute] hearings, at one point, just over a year ago, we were waiting 12 weeks, and now we are at 2.3 weeks — well below service standards because of the investments that we were able to make,” said Kahlon.

TRAC says the province needs to force landlords to pay a filing fee and prove their case in court before being able to evict a tenant every time.

The Vancouver Tenants Union invites troubled tenants to join the collective as a means to make change.

“Every tenant evicted into one of the world’s most expensive rental markets is another person at immediate risk of homelessness. It is unconscionable for the RTB to continue to rubber stamp thousands of evictions every month when people have nowhere else to go.”

The ministry says the changes related to the notice period to end a tenancy for a landlord’s personal use will come into effect on June 18.