A controversial new online petition has rekindled a debate over the rights of landlords versus the rights of tenants in B.C.
The petition, created by a group called the Landlord Rights Association of BC, claims provincial laws are unfairly slanted toward tenants and result in problematic tenants abusing the system.
One landlord told Global News the call for change said her bad tenant horror story cost her $30,000 after the tenant used the courts to avoid eviction.
“Not only the financial damage but more the emotional and the mental damage of what the tenant can do,” landlord Shashi Maharaj told Global News.
“You know, just simple request to pay the rent or visit the property and getting back threats and just abusive language and a lot of very scary things and we were quite scared, both of us, to even go there.”
Maharaj and her partner purchased a townhome in March 2022, but the tenant subleased it to another person.
“So I was still getting the rent payments from the original tenant,” she said. “But once the rent started coming in late in February of this year, that’s when I noticed that there was a problem and we started reaching out to the new tenant that was in there.”
Maharaj said they also started receiving fines from the strata due to violations from the tenant.
Finally, after seeing the condition of the home and talking to the tenant, they issued him an eviction notice and scheduled a hearing with the Residential Tenancy Branch.
“So the hearing date was July 7,” Maharaj said. “He was supposed to be out by the end of July.”
But at the end of the month, the tenant said he needed more time and he didn’t leave.
“We had to hire a bailiff company,” Maharaj said. “We had to first go to Supreme Court (and) get the order of possession that was given to us from the Residential Tenancy Branch turned into a writ of possession because that’s the only way that you can evict.”
Court documents shown to Global News state that a decision was given to the tenant by the Residential Tenancy Branch to vacate the property by noon on July 31, 2023, which he did not. The documents state the tenant was also supposed to pay Maharaj a monetary amount, which he never did, she said.
After battling the tenant further to evict him, Maharaj said the whole experience cost them thousands but also mental anguish and stress.
She would like to see the laws changed so that a landlord can evict a tenant for certain reasons without a dispute or a hearing.
“I’m out $30,000,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do to get that money back because if I go chase him in small claims court, he’s already told me he’s got no money and you can’t get blood from a stone. So tenants are taking advantage of this.”
In a statement to Global News, B.C.’s Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said the Residential Tenancy Branch has streamlined operations to ensure serious disputes between landlords and tenants can be resolved faster.
“We have implemented a dispute stream that ‘fast-tracks’ hearings for landlord requests for an Order of Possession for unpaid rent, where the tenant has requested to cancel the Notice to End Tenancy issued by the landlord,” he said.
“Earlier this month, we expanded the Direct Request Process to allow landlords to get an Order of Possession quicker when a tenant hasn’t disputed the end of the tenancy.”
Kahlon added that rent increases in B.C. were capped at 3.5 per cent in 2024 to help balance the costs for both landlords and tenants.
“As inflation returns to normal levels in future years, the province intends to return to an annual rent increase that is tied to B.C.’s Consumer Price Index. Landlords also have the ability to apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch to increase rent for approved capital expenditures,” he said.
Robert Patterson of the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre said these situations can be difficult but sometimes it comes down to knowing the laws around landlord and tenant rights.
“A landlord who understands the law and knows how to use the law can evict a bad tenant in a shockingly short amount of time,” he said.
“I think there certainly are landlords who don’t understand exactly how the law works, (and) don’t know how to access it properly. So in terms of that wait time, some of that I think often comes down to the landlord not knowing how the system works.”
The landlord’s petition also calls for speeding up Residential Tenancy Branch Dispute decisions, restoring fixed-term tenancies, and increasing the allowable rent increases under the law.
The petition is not supported by the B.C. Landlords Association, which is the main landlord’s group in the province.