Legal loophole leaves Manitoba renters vulnerable to astronomical rent hikes, says new study

CBC

12-02-2025

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Manitoba landlords use cosmetic upgrades to "tack on" astronomical rent hikes above provincial rent controls, and it's all perfectly legal, a new study says.
Released Wednesday, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study looks into above-guideline rental increases in Winnipeg's West Broadway neighbourhood by analyzing experiences of tenants who've been pummeled with relentless price increases, some for several consecutive years.
"I've lived in West Broadway for five years now, and in that time my rent has gone from roughly $940 to over $1300," said study participant Neil Kraemer in a Wednesday press conference.
"In those five years I've dealt with three above-guideline increases. So now, every fall when the lease renewal comes it's a yearly frustration… how much are they asking for now?" said Kraemer.
Tenants reported that the building changes, like painted trim and changed light fixtures, were not only unnecessary but were completed instead of essential repairs — and the bill falls to renters.
"We're paying for buzzer systems, flower beds, air conditioner boxes — stuff that we didn't order. Meanwhile, the apartment's flooding, and the [piping] should have been paid instead," one renter in the study said.
Fourteen tenants participated in the study and collectively experienced 27 above-guideline rent increases between them, which ranged between three and 43 per cent through 2008 and 2024.
Researchers analyzed the interviews conducted with participants in 2024. Scholarly research and local media stories were also included in the study.
Tenants interviewed for the study lived at properties managed by Thorwin Properties, Globe Property Management, Alliance Asset Management, Sussex Realty, Houston Property, D7 Properties and Onyx Property Management.
"It does seem like the story is happening over and over again," said Amanda Emms, researcher and one of the writers of the study said in an interview.
"They pay these rent hikes in perpetuity, even after whatever repairs have been paid off, the rates remain," Emms said.
Emms says technically, landlords aren't doing anything wrong under current legislation.
Rental units are protected by rental increase guidelines set by the province based on the Consumer Price Index, but social housing, newer building apartments that are under 20 years old, and units that rent for more than $1,640 per month are not protected by the rental increase guideline.
Yutaka Dirks, a Right to Housing Residential Tenancies Working Group representative, says landlords of newer buildings don't even need to apply for an above-guideline rent increase when they want to raise the rent.
For older buildings, landlords must apply for approval for an above-guideline rent increase if the standard guideline won't cover operating and capital costs for the unit that year.
"They're not actually a way for landlords to recoup costs," says Dirks.
"AGI's [above-guideline rent increases] are a way for profit margins to be increased on the backs of tenants."
The study found the Residential Tenancies Branch typically approved landlord above-guideline rental increase applications, with average increase rates over 10 per cent, over the three years analyzed in the study, between 2019 and 2021.
That's well above the two per cent average standard guideline the branch set for those years. This year, in 2025, the guideline caps rental increase at 1.7 per cent.
Nearly 60,000 units in Manitoba were impacted by above-guideline rent increases during that time.
Difficult appeal process
Many of the tenants interviewed for the study said they were so overwhelmed by the process that they did not try to fight the rental increase after receiving the notification of an above-guideline rent increase.
Most interviewees reported fear for the future of their housing if they tried to fight the rental increase, citing precarious employment and fear of retribution from their landlord.
Tenants who wish to fight the increase must go in person to the Residential Tenancies Branch during office hours within two weeks to review their landlord's application and submit comments, unmanageable for many participants.
During the pandemic, tenants in a building overseen by Onyx Property Management at 149 Langside St. received a notice for a 14.3 per cent above-guideline rent increase in spring 2022.
Tenants turned to the West Broadway Tenants committee for support and formed a tenant association. One third of the tenants submitted written objections to the RTA, and their rents increased to 13.3 percent in June.
West Broadway residents mainly renters
A bill proposed last year outlined concrete steps toward limiting above-guideline rent increases through changes to the Residential Tenancy Act, but "the provincial government let Bill 26 die in November," the study says.
The bill is now in the hands of Mintu Sandhu, minister of public service delivery, and will need to be reintroduced in March of 2025, the study says, four years after another minister first called for changes to rental legislation.
West Broadway houses 5,590 people living in 3,370 dwellings. More than 90 per cent of residents rent their home, with individual incomes on average below $29,000, the study says.
Twenty-four per cent of the neighbourhood's population identifies as Indigenous, including Métis, First Nations and Inuit.
Ultimately the study highlights the limited rights of tenants, where property owners can make decisions that directly impact the lives of tenants with little to no consequence.
"When presented with an above-guideline rent increase, a tenant has two choices: ignore it or fight … the tenants in this study found neither proved to be a sure bet to stop their rents from climbing."