Renters in Surrey, B.C., are wondering where they are going to live if they do not agree to a massive rent hike from the owner of their building.
In late April, about half of the residents at Winsome Place Apartments received a letter from the owner asking them to agree to a rent increase of as much as 40 per cent.
“There are several seniors in this group,” resident Linda de Gonzalez, who has lived there for 21 years, told Global News.
“The group is nearly half of the tenants in this building. Thirty tenants received the notice and there is, I think, 72 apartments in this building.
“Shock and dismay doesn’t even begin to… I was devastated.”
De Gonzales is currently paying $1,014 a month for her suite, which she said she knows is below market average but the owner wants to raise it to $1,450 immediately.
She said she gets about $2,100 a month from her pension. “I don’t know how I can pay this,” she added. “I would probably have to go to the food bank, I don’t know.”
According to the letter, the owner states rising operating costs as the motivation behind the rent increases.
“I can appreciate that,” de Gonzalez said, “but a $450 rise? Who’s had a $450 a month raise?”
“$1,400 doesn’t leave me enough to eat. It doesn’t leave me enough to live on.”
The building was built in 1995 and was strata-titled at the time. De Gonzalez said the builder at the time couldn’t sell the suites, so he got permission from the City of Surrey to rent the suites and they have all been rented ever since. No unit in the building has ever been sold.
Resident Rod Hill is also facing a 40-per cent increase in his rent. He currently pays $1,028 a month and his letter stated the rent would increase to $1,450 a month.
“I’m a pensioner, I’m not different from Linda,” he said. “I think I have about $2,200 from my pension and I can’t afford to spend about $400. I don’t have any debts but just my main expenses: hydro, phone, rent, etc.
“There’s no way I can come up with an extra $400.”
Hill said he does have kids he could go and live with but he likes living on his own and he doesn’t want to burden them, he added, breaking down into tears.
“We’re all stressed,” de Gonzalez said. “We’re not sleeping.”
Hill said all the neighbours are awesome and have come together to form a community so he doesn’t want to leave his home.
Robert Patterson, a lawyer and tenant advocate with the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre, told Global News there is nothing illegal that the owner is doing.
“A landlord is allowed to ask a tenant if they will agree to an above-guideline rent increase and a landlord is allowed to sell their building,” he told Global News.
Patterson said for many landlords and many tenants, this kind of threat does not make sense for a tenant living in a rental market building. He said it is zoned for one plot of land so a landlord could have a hard time selling a single building to someone wanting to occupy the entire building.
“But where a landlord can sell individual units, to individual owners who may want to occupy, the threat that those owners might buy those units and then try and evict the tenants for their own use, is significantly higher,” Patterson added.
He said if the tenant and landlord agree in writing to a rent increase that is outside the provincially-regulated rental yearly increase then that agreement is allowed to stand under the current tenancy laws.
“A higher than allowable percentage is permitted if the parties agree,” Patterson explained. “I think this example shows that by allowing that freedom of contract on that percentage, it opens the door to these kinds of cases where landlords will try and put improper pressure on tenants to try and agree to those higher increases.”
Patterson said it is common for them to hear stories from renters about landlords “threatening” renters to agree to a high increase, otherwise the landlord says they will move in a family member, which is allowed under the current Residential Tenancy Act.
For the Winsome Place residents, the letter asks them to respond by May 10 and if the owner does not hear back by then, their suite may be put on the market on July 1.
Global News reached out to the owner of the building but did not hear back by the time of publication.
De Gonzalez said she has looked into other housing options but wait lists appear to be years long for any housing. They can’t afford to buy their suites and there’s nowhere for them to even go.
She said there is no contact information for the owner in the letter, it is just an email address so they can let the owner know if they agree to the rent increase.
“Any situation like this, they can sell the place, they can do what they want, they’re the owners,” Hill added. “But number one, we’ve got a lease and it says the lease is good for whatever time. And number two, you can’t say to me, ‘Sign this or else we’ll sell your place’, it’s a threat.
“It’s not right, I don’t think.”