MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
It has been reported in the news that rental rates are soaring across Canada. Rental rates in Canada grew at a record level last year and the country saw the lowest vacancy rate since 2001, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
"Lower vacancy rates and rising rents were a common theme across Canada in 2022," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist, in a news release. "This caused affordability challenges for renters, especially those in the lower income ranges, with very few units in the market available in their price range."
A major problem and fact is when tenants get evicted at the Landlord and Tenant Board there is a great potential for tenants then to become homeless. With Canada's already-hot rental market expected to come under even more pressure in 2023, experts say tenants should guard themselves against "renoviction" by educating themselves about their rights.
The term 'renoviction' is used to describe a situation when a landlord cites the need for major renovations as the reason behind an eviction. While most Canadian jurisdictions have rules in place to protect tenants — such as limiting the types of repairs that justify requiring renters to move out, or specifying how much notice a landlord must give — tenant advocates say the practice still happens regularly.
For example, a recent report from Ontario's Advocacy Centre for Tenants (ACTO) found there has been a 294 per cent increase in landlord applications to evict tenants for renovations or conversions at the province's Landlord and Tenant Board since 2015-16.
Douglas Kwan, ACTO's director of advocacy and legal services, said he's also seeing an increase in "own-use evictions," where a landlord claims to need to take a unit back so they or a family member can move in.
Both of these practices, Kwan said, are sometimes used by landlords to get rid of existing tenants so they can rent apartments to new tenants at a much higher rate.
"We’re seeing all types of situations in which landlords are seeking to end the tenancy to take advantage of the market," Kwan said. "These instances are increasing."
However, from Kwan's perspective, 'renovictions', own-use evictions, and other similar landlord practices are unlikely to go away until governments do more to address Canada's affordable housing crisis.
"There is not enough supply of rental housing in Ontario, just like everywhere else," Kwan said. "What tenants really need right now is for governments to commit funds to provide true affordable housing.
Doug Abernethy
Gravenhurst
