What's Happening In Your Province
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In Part 3 we’ll continue to talk about the challenges renters are facing.
From a Manitoba Perspective. Unfair competition When it comes to this point the only unfair competition we could see if that as more people rent the inventory decreases. When there is not much out there on the market for rental units the ability to find a place to rent gets harder. Supply and demand has always worked this way. The same can be said when the inventory is high, this is now in the tenant’s favour and they can be more selective on where they want to rent. Landlords in this situation might have a harder time finding tenant(s) for their units. Lack of housing options In Feb 2024 it was announced that Winnipeg was around the 2% vacancy rate. This does not provide renters with a lot of places to choose from. You always hear we need more affordable housing. The question is affordable housing for who? What’s the definition of affordable housing in Canada? CHMC's Definition: What is affordable housing? In Canada, housing is considered “affordable” if it costs less than 30% of a household’s before-tax income. Many people think the term. “affordable housing” refers only to rental housing that is subsidized. With this bill Justin is targeting millennials and Gen Z voters so we’ll assume that for this age group there needs to be inventory from a rental and housing perspective. In Part 4 we'll discuss how the government plans for addressing these points.
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Let’s talk about the challenges from a Manitoba perspective. Skyrocketing rents: Here in Manitoba, Landlords increase the rents by the amounts set rent increase guidelines each year. There are exceptions, but for the most part most of the private landlords should be following the set rent increases. This protects the tenants from huge increases. However, people have already forgotten that during covid landlords were not allowed to increase the rents. While everything else was going up Landlords were not able to raise rents to keep up with all the other soring costs. Not only were landlords not able to increase rents, landlords could not evict people during covid. This allowed tenants to live rent free and there was nothing that could be done. Like other businesses that were struggling during covid so where the landlords. Where was the government’s help for the Landlords when their bills – mortgages, insurance, property taxes, utilities etc - still needed to be paid ? And the tenants were living there rent free. There was NONE! And if you were lucky there was minimal damage to the unit after the tenant left. Renovictions: Landlords are allowed to ask the tenants to move out if major renovations are being done to the unit. The guideline were set out in the residential tenancies act. Now there can be an issue when the landlord uses this as an excuse to evict the tenant. However, if you follow the RTB process to evict someone it can takes months to get someone out. So a landlord could already be loosing rent and to have to go another couple of months without payment while they try to get the tenant out of the unit. But on the flip side there are tenants that will leave by the dates indicated Tenants want improved rental units – how are landlords suppose to complete this with a tenant living in a unit? Stay tuned for Part 3 where we'll continue to discuss the challenges. In late Mar 2024 Justin Trudeau announce a new bill of rights for renters.
Something to keep in mind always is there is 2 sides to every story and then there is the truth. So, having said that - what does this bill mean for renters and landlords? Purpose of the bill – to make the playing field fairer for renters and make it easier to become home owners. Challenges from a renter’s perspective (as indicated in the press release).
Over the next few posts we will go into an in depth look at both sides of the challenges and new measures. Stay tuned ! Source: City News
Housing advocates are welcoming proposed measures from the federal government that would see minimum standards of rights for tenants all across the country. Among the protections expected to be included in the federal government’s upcoming budget include allowing renters to build credit when paying their rent on time, a $15 million fund to tenants’ rights advocacy groups, and a Renters’ Bill of Rights. The Renters’ Bill of Rights will see landlords be required to reveal past rental pricing, set a national standard for lease agreements, and target renovictions, evictions of tenants when a landlord renovates a unit. “We want to make sure those rent increases as a result of that aren’t excessive and aren’t pushing people out,” said Yutaka Dirks, Chair of Right to Housing. “We have a patchwork of protections whether you live in Manitoba, Ontario, Newfoundland, even if you have the same landlord and you are renting the same size apartment you might have totally different protections depending on where you live.” Dirks says while the federal government’s recent announcement on tenants’ rights is encouraging, he also wants to see greater work done to include more affordable housing stock across the country. “We hope that together with this, that the federal government does increase funding for specifically rent-geared to income housing so that tenants who are living with really low incomes, who can’t afford apartments, are able to find a place to live,” said Dirks. Tony Irwin with the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations says he favours supports for tenants but is also hoping landlords are also consulted with as Ottawa works to try to make housing more affordable. “I think it’s clear, we do need more purpose-built rentals,” said Irwin. “While rents have gotten unaffordable for many, there are also challenges for many who operate.” Tenants Rights’ organizations are also hoping they are part of that consultation process, with Dale Whitmore from the Canadian Centre for Housing saying the federal government is just scratching the surface. “You would think eviction would be a last resort. It would seem kind of obvious to us, but it is not in many provinces and territories, in some it’s almost treated as a default. A Renters’ Bill of Rights at the very least would need to include protections against excessive rents,” said Dale Whitmore, the director of policy and law reform at the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights. |
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