WEEK OF MAY 16 2022 NEWSREEL WITH KERRY CHANDLER
Ontario’s Liberals and New Democrats are both pledging to reintroduce rent control.
read moreMONTREAL UNVEILS FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND LANDLORD REGISTRY
The City of Montreal aims to better protect tenants on its territory with its new responsible landlord certification project. Mayor Valérie Plante announced on Tuesday what she calls a new “tool in the toolbox” to help tenants find safe, livable spaces. The city is launching a new online public landlord registry. According to Plante, it is the first of its kind in Quebec and will help the city have additional leverage to ensure a safer and healthier rental stock, while reducing the risks...
read moreVICTORIA WANTS B.C. TO REGULATE RENT INCREASES BETWEEN TENANCIES
Greater Victoria’s renters are best to stay put. That’s because real estate investors continue to inflate the price of vacant rental units, a situation that has prompted the City of Victoria to call on the province to clamp down on unregulated sections of the rental housing market. The tenant turnover rate continued its decline in most Greater Victoria municipalities in 2020, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. That coincided with a six-year period where unregulated...
read moreNOVA SCOTIA EXTENDS ‘RENOVICTION’ BAN
Nova Scotia’s ban on landlords ending a residential lease for the purpose of renovations — or “renovictions” — has been extended. According to a release Friday, the extension is until the state of emergency ends or the ban is repealed, whichever comes first. Colton LeBlanc, the province’s minister of Service Nova Scotia and Internal Service, said in the release that the ban was being extended so “our most vulnerable citizens continue to be protected during the...
read moreONTARIO RAISES MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE RENT INCREASE AS RENT FREEZES END
Ontario renters may soon be paying more for their accommodations after the province hiked its rent increase guidelines today. The province says it has set its rent increase guideline for 2022 at 1.2 per cent. The guideline is the maximum a landlord can increase a tenants’ rent during a year without the approval of the Landlord and Tenant Board. The guidelines apply to most rented apartments, condos, houses and care and mobile homes, but there are some exceptions for vacant residential units,...
read moreGOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES PROPERTY “RE-ASSESSMENT” FREEZE
On November 4th, as part of the Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review, the government announced it was postponing property assessment updates for the 2022 and 2023 taxation years. Property assessments will remain the same as they were for the 2021 tax year, unless there have been changes to the property. This move by the province is expected to stabilize property taxes through the COVID recovery period. We do note that many municipalities across Ontario continue to move forward with...
read moreTENANTS’ COALITION SAYS PROPOSED RENT LEGISLATION IS MISSING A KEY PIECE: RENT CONTROL
New Brunswick is introducing legislation that would ban rent increases in the first year and restrict price hikes to once a year after that – but stops short of actually capping rent increase amounts. The N.B. Coalition for Tenants Rights says that’s a glaring omission. The proposed legislation, introduced Tuesday, makes several changes to address some of the issues related to renting — including concerns that rental rates have spiked “unreasonably” during the...
read moreLANDLORDS’ GROUP QUESTIONS IRAC FORMULATION OF ALLOWABLE RENT INCREASE
The executive director of the Residential Rental Association of P.E.I. wants to talk to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission about how it set the maximum allowable rent increase for 2022. IRAC announced Tuesday that the increase would be one per cent for both heated and unheated units, but Cecil Villard said that doesn’t match up with current inflation. “A one per cent increase in no way really responds to the costs that landlords will incur over the next year, when you...
read more2022 RENT INCREASE CAPPED AT 1.5% IN B.C.
With the province-wide pandemic rent freeze set to expire at the end of the year, the government has announced that landlords cannot raise rents by more than 1.5 per cent for 2022. The maximum allowable increase is tied to inflation and was released by the Attorney General and Ministry responsible for Housing on Wednesday. Any rent hike in 2022 cannot take place before Jan.1 and must be preceded by three months’ notice from the landlord provided to the tenant. The province introduced a...
read moreHOUSTON DOESN’T SEE SCENARIO WHERE RENT CONTROL WOULD CONTINUE PAST STATE OF EMERGENCY
Nova Scotia’s premier-designate said Monday he remains committed to removing rent control put in place by the Liberal government after the province’s state of emergency is lifted, though it’s unclear when that will be. Speaking at a COVID-19 briefing, Tim Houston reiterated his position from the provincial election campaign, saying a Progressive Conservative government will put an end to the annual rent increase cap of two per cent. “I don’t see a scenario with...
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