Connor Donegan

Tenant Power and Rent Control

The Social Housing Coalition BC is demanding that the province outlaw renovictions and slumlording and begin enforcing maintenance standards that landlords now make a mockery of.  Renovictions happen when landlords renovate an apartment and then raise the rent beyond what existing tenants can afford, effectively evicting the tenant.  By evicting tenants, and changing the cabinets and carpets, landlords seem to be able to raise the rent to whatever they like. These renovictions are an attack on the right of low- and modest-income people to live in Vancouver and they threaten tenants across B.C. The first step to ending renovictions is to remove the renovictions clause from the Residential Tenancy Act. However, in a province where landlords and developers trample over tenant rights with impudence, legal recognition of tenant unions is needed to shift the balance of power towards renters. (…)