The skyrocketing rents in the Greater Vancouver area is no longer news. Renting and renting are not easy, and everyone should have worked together to tide over the difficulties, but at such a juncture, there are a few unscrupulous landlords who try to squeeze benefits from tenants.
Fortunately, several tenants involved did not get used to them, and directly went to the government department - one tenant not only sued the former landlord, but also received more than 22,000 Canadian dollars in compensation: almost the next year do not have to worry about not having to pay the rent.
(Pictured from Tricy News)
According to Tricy News, a local media outlet in Metro Vancouver, the tenant who was paid for one year's rent originally rented an apartment in Port Coquitlam at $1,800 a month. At the end of December 2020, she suddenly received a notice that she would have trouble moving out by March 2021: the reason was that the house had been sold to someone else, and now the landlord was ready to move in with his daughter.
Thinking that the house is not his own after all, the landlord wants to move in and live in itself is indeed reasonable and legal, and two months' notice in advance is also enough time to prepare for himself. So the anonymous tenant didn't say much and moved out on February 28, 2021.
As a result, by chance, the tenant found that the landlord had moved in with his children after he had moved out, but within two days, he rented the house to someone else on April 1.
At this point, the tenant lady stopped working and directly sued the landlord to the B.C. Residential Rental Department (RTB) for arbitration.
First of all, according to the regulations of the Province of British Columbia, aside from the fact that the landlord can only raise the rent of the same tenant once a year, and the increase cannot exceed 1.5% each time, because of the impact of the epidemic, the BC provincial government strictly prohibits all landlords in the province from raising rents in any form before December 31, 2021.
Is it okay for the landlord to take advantage of a legal loophole to drive the tenant away first, and then raise the rent to others after living for a period of time?
Theoretically, it is feasible – because the province of British Columbia stipulates that new buyers of houses can indeed drive tenants away in the name of "self-occupation", but they must move in immediately after the tenants move away, and they must live for at least 6 months to rent the house to others again.
Therefore, in the case that occurred in Coquitlam Port, RTB knew at a glance that the landlord wanted to take advantage of the legal loophole to increase income by rent increases, so it directly issued a judgment, allowing the landlord to compensate the tenant for 12 months' rent plus 100 Canadian dollars in application fees, a total of 22140 Canadian dollars.
At the arbitral tribunal, the landlord also argued that he did live in it, but because he was worried about his daughter's transfer and because he was afraid that the child would not be used to leaving his father, he temporarily changed his mind and moved out, and rented the apartment to someone else. As a result, the arbitrator came directly to court and said that the reason for "changing his mind" was not sufficient, because "the landlord has the responsibility to plan his own moving plan in advance, and has the obligation to anticipate and deal with the problem of the child's inadaptability after moving".
In this case, after the tenant is evicted, can the landlord who moves in move out of the house for less than half a year, and not be held responsible? The arbitrator explained that it was possible, but this was very rare – unless the house was on fire or there was an emergency such as a deceased person, the RTB would generally award the landlord to pay the tenant money.
(Photo from Global News)
Global News quoted the latest report released by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on February 18 that from the two-bedroom rent in 37 areas across Canada, the national rent has now risen by 3% year-on-year to $1167.
In terms of increases, Vancouver and Toronto rose by only 2.4% and 1.5% respectively, but this is most likely because rents in these two places are too high to rise – the average price of two-bedroom apartments in Toronto is now $1666, while Vancouver is as high as $1824: rents are about a third higher than the Canadian average.
In Vancouver, for example, the report notes that residents here have to work at least 198 hours a month to squeeze rent costs to 30 percent of their income. Based on the calculation of 8 hours a day, five working days a week, Vancouver residents can only work 173.3 hours a month when they are fully counted – in other words, in order to be able to afford to rent a house, which Wencun resident is not holding several jobs? Take a leave of absence today, maybe tomorrow you have to go to sleep on the cement pipe.
And please note that the average two-bedroom apartment in Vancouver in the report is $1824, which refers to the low-cost rental units that include back alley houses and basements - what? You ask about a two bedroom apartment? According to a report released by the rental platform Liv Rent on February 1, if you don't pay more than 2500 knives per month, you are dreaming! (Also buy your own furniture).
(From Liv Rent)
Dawen's crazy rental market has also spawned many conflicts between landlords and tenants, and there are many of them on the day of February 18 alone:
The landlord in Coquitlam Harbor above who wanted to exploit the loophole was sentenced to pay the tenant a year's rent, and We will not repeat it, and Bennaby has such an outrageous thing: a landlord threatens his tenant that if she does not pay herself a "parking fee" of $125 per month, she will call every day to tow her car parked on the public street.
This honest tenant actually agreed at first, until two lawyers told her that you were pit by the landlord, and the landlord had no right to do so, and she suddenly realized that she began to fight with the landlord.
(Photo from Burnaby Now)
In another case, it was still in the big Winburn Nabe, but this time the room owner was not a good thing - the tenant Xiao A was a wanted man, and as a result, Xiao A made up a pseudonym and easily rented a house from the landlord, and then made trouble in the house every three to five years, and also traded drugs in the residence.
Little B, who lives next door, is made miserable every day, and then she almost took off in fright, and immediately reacted to the landlord. As a result, either the landlord was too lazy or the landlord was too scared, and he didn't care about it at all, until Little A was arrested by the police, and Little B was relieved.
But within a few days, the police released Xiao A, and then Xiao A continued to trade drugs at home and threatened Xiao B. Frightened, Xiao B went to the landlord to ask for measures, and as a result, he gave the landlord a sentence of "don't be nosy" to block back, and could only find the media to vent his emotions.
Don't look for a house in the garbage heap!!