Tenant advocates worry landlords given green light to inflate rents

Vancouver housing advocates are raising the alarm that a provision in B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act puts tenants at risk of potentially disastrous rent increases.

Landlords in the province are mandated to cap rent increases at a certain level, this year at 3.5 per cent. But the Act allows landlords to increase rents substantially above that rate if faced with unexpected refinancing costs. That provision was recently used successfully by a landlord to increase their tenant’s rent by an additional 23.5 per cent.