The province's rent freeze expired at the end of 2021, and landlords in Burnaby didn’t waste much time sending out notices to their tenants.
As of Jan. 1, 2022, B.C. landlords could increase rent by a maximum of 1.5 per cent, based on inflation, explains a news release.
For D., who lives in a condo in Burnaby’s Metrotown area, raising the rent would be acceptable if management wasn’t doing such a lousy job of maintaining the building.
Like having two elevators in the building that are broken at the same time, leaving residents with mobility issues struggling to do even basic daily tasks.
“We've been here a year and a half and it's been awful,” wrote D. “Every person I talk to in this building is complaining. Management doesn't care. We are new here from Newfoundland with two dogs so it's very difficult to find a pet-friendly spot to live. I feel trapped! I have dozens of messages sent to management for all kinds of issues here. Elevators being the main one. I have to carry my two very senior dogs up and down the stairs as they can't take the stairs. Not OK. And to add insult to injury, they recently raised our rent and now have filed an application to raise our rent again to pay for the broken elevators and broken garage door … I almost started a petition against this building and their recent proposed rent hike but chickened out because I don't want to risk being kicked out with two dogs.”
This is a relatively new thing for rental buildings as the province now allows landlords to apply for rent hikes that are to be used to pay for large repairs, like fixing elevators. That feels wrong.
I recently wrote about another Burnaby building that has had elevator trouble.
“For me, the worst of this is how often our elevators have been out, sometimes we've been down to 1 elevator for up to 3 months,” said local resident Pauline Scott, who has complex medical issues. “And as a result then the other elevator would go down and we'd have no elevators. Luckily, in the past having no elevators was usually, mercifully brief. Lately, however, it has been often that we've had no elevators.”
The elevator outages have forced Scott to miss multiple medical appointments.
Her landlords also raised the rents recently as the freeze lifted.
So much for getting any bang for their buck.
B.C. landlords may only increase once annually, if they choose to increase rent at all.
In 2021, B.C. banned illegal renovictions (evictions to complete renovations to a property) by requiring landlords to apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch for pre-approval before ending a tenancy.
Quick Facts:
- If a landlord served a tenant with a notice of rent increase that takes effect in 2021, it is null and void and the tenant does not have to pay it.
- The maximum allowable rent increase is defined by the 12-month average per cent change in the all-items Consumer Price Index for B.C. ending in July the year prior to the calendar year for which a rent increase takes effect.
- For example, if a rent increase takes effect in 2022, the maximum allowable rent increase is the 12-month average per cent change in the all-items Consumer Price Index for B.C. ending in July 2021.
- The 2022 maximum increase for manufactured home park tenancies will be 1.5%, plus a proportional amount for the change in local government levies and regulated utility fees.
- The rent increase does not include commercial tenancies, non-profit housing tenancies where rent is geared to income, co-operative housing and some assisted-living facilities.
- With additional reporting by Elana Shepert, Vancouver is Awesome
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
