Latest news with #renoviction
CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
‘It's a plague': Advocates renew calls for renoviction bylaw in Kitchener
Local advocates are renewing their calls for a bylaw that would prevent renters from losing their homes and protect them from bad landlords. Known as a 'renoviction,' the term refers to the practice of forcing a tenant out of a building, citing the need for extensive renovations or repairs in the unit. On Monday, more than a dozen people took their fight to Kitchener City Hall, hoping to grab the attention of councillors and city staff. 'People need a renoviction bylaw passed,' said Ryan Murdock, secretary of the Waterloo chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). 'They need it passed now. They needed it passed yesterday.' Linda Vos is one of several tenants at 250 Frederick St., who received a renoviction notice earlier this year. While her case was dismissed by the Landlord Tenant Board last week, she said other people in her building aren't as lucky. ACORN RALLY Local housing advocates are renewing their calls for a bylaw in Kitchener that would prevent renters from losing their homes and protect them from bad landlords. (Alexandra Holyk/CTV News) '(The landlords) seem to be targeting the individuals that have lower rents, that have been living in my building for decades,' said Vos. To put the problem into perspective, ACORN said it surveyed 160 tenants in Waterloo Region, with 28 per cent saying they received one or more eviction notices in the last five years. Of those, 54 per cent were notices to vacate for renovations or demolition. 'It's a plague that's really going across the country,' said Murdock. 'And that's why you see other municipalities, other regions stepping up and protecting their citizens, protecting their tenants, and that's what we need Kitchener to do here.' Back in February, city staff told council they needed time to review how similar bylaws worked in other jurisdictions like Hamilton, London and Toronto. They're expected to share their findings in a report at a committee meeting on June 16. 'There's no reason that Kitchener can't do it,' said ACORN's Ken Vogelpohl. 'All we've been hearing is excuses. What we want is some action.' But according to one city councillor, action requires resources – something the city doesn't have. 'The province hasn't provided the tools to us to do that,' said Ward 9 Councillor Debbie Chapman in an interview with CTV News. 'But the fact that these other cities are doing it, I'd love to see Kitchener follow suit.' It's still not clear when a renoviction bylaw could come into force, but advocates say they're not going anywhere until something is done. 'It's time to actually do something,' said Vogepohl. 'We're going to be here. We're going to be at the mics. We're going to be putting more pressure on council to make sure that this happens.'
CBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Hamilton landlord fined $100K for illegal renovictions that had 'devastating' impacts on tenants, court hears
A Hamilton tenant says she's impressed with a "fantastic" judge's recent decision to fine her former landlord $100,000 for illegally renovicting her and three other tenants, even if they'll never get their homes back. "That's a good place to start to show the landlords of Ontario they can't just throw their tenants out," Darlene Wesley told CBC Hamilton. The senior had lived in her downtown apartment for nearly 20 years and never missed a rent payment when, in February 2023, the building's owner Kevin Moniz evicted her in order to carry out extensive renovations. Wesley informed him in writing and in person she intended to move back in after the work was done — as is her right under Ontario law. But within months, he'd rented it out to someone else. He did the same to three other tenants living in the five-unit building, including Wesley's daughter. The tenants testified during a trial against Moniz and property management company Cornerstone Select Properties at Hamilton's provincial offences courthouse on May 12. Justice of the Peace Linda Crawford found Moniz guilty on four counts of knowingly failing to give the tenants the right of first refusal for their units and fined him $25,000 for each. "A general deterrent in my view is very important in these kinds of circumstances, where there's a landlord with a small building that was once affordable for people," Crawford told the court. Moniz was not present for the trial and did not respond to requests for comment. Crawford gave him two weeks to pay the $100,000 — a high amount for Residential Tenancy Act violations. The charges against Moniz were laid last year by Ontario's Rental Housing Enforcement Unit (RHEU), which is mandated to uphold landlord and tenant rights and investigate complaints. It works independently from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). By comparison, in all of 2022, fines stemming from charges laid by RHEU totalled $121,800. Tenant can't afford new place Crawford found Moniz acted deliberately and the impacts on the tenants have been "devastating." "In my view, there was quite a bit of foresight to renovate apartments and he made a decision to essentially flip them and rent them out more than double what he had been getting before," she said. Before being evicted, the four tenants said they each paid less than $700 a month in rent. A new tenant who moved into one of the units after the renovations told the court she currently pays $1,500. The eviction process began for the four tenants in March 2021, when they received N13 notices from Moniz. Their cases went to the LTB, which ruled in Moniz's favour that the units did need to be empty for him to complete renovations. Three of the tenants moved out before Wesley. They all testified they told Moniz in writing that they'd move back into their units when the work was done. Tenant Robert Jewel said he had no other option. He worked a minimum wage job and wanted to keep the unit he'd been able to afford for 25 years, he testified. But one night, when renovations were supposed to still be happening, he walked by the building and through a window saw someone in his unit's living room, watching TV. He later learned it was a new tenant. "And to be honest, I cried that night when I discovered my apartment had been taken away from me," Jewel said. "It's like I'm a second class citizen all of the sudden just because this greedy person comes along." Unable to afford to rent a new place, Jewel said he has been couch surfing at friends and family's homes since he was evicted. "I'm almost out on the street and I don't have my own place anymore and that loss of freedom, I really, keenly feel," Jewel said. Property management company fined Wesley and her daughter had no choice but to find a place together and now pay $2,000 a month, an arrangement Wesley described as a "nightmare." "Now I've got nothing because all my money goes to rent," she told the court. She said she left her place in 2023 thinking she'd definitely be coming back as she took all the steps she was supposed to. In the weeks before she moved, she had provided Moniz with several copies of a signed letter stating her intentions, and verbally told him the same thing in front of a representative from Cornerstone — the property management company Moniz had hired to find new tenants. Welsey testified that on another occasion somebody from Cornerstone was showing a unit to prospective tenants. She told that person, "'all of the apartments ... have the right of first refusal' and he said, 'I know, I know, I know.'" Company president Jeff Varcoe represented Cornerstone in court. He denied the allegations, saying nobody at his company knew about the "entire building being renovicted" and he hasn't been able to substantiate Wesley's account. Crawford said she did not find Varcoe's testimony credible and fined Cornerstone $25,000, plus a $6,250 victim surcharge, for not ensuring Wesley had the opportunity to move back into her unit. "That's not something we have the financial ability to cover at all," Varcoe said. "This will bankrupt us."
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Oak Bay tenant calls for provincial, municipal tenant support following 'renoviction'
Neil McKinlay and his family were forced to leave their home of 28 years in Oak Bay, B.C., last month, after the building's renters lost a two-year battle with their landlord and were evicted for renovations. Now paying significantly more at his new rental, McKinlay is calling on the province and District of Oak Bay to enhance tenant assistance and crack down on landlords who evict tenants to renovate — known as renoviction — and then, potentially, rent out units at a higher price. The fate of McKinlay's building was decided last fall, when the the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) sided with his landlord, Andrew Rebeyka, in a decision viewed by the CBC, ordering all tenants out of the building by the end of March. "It was a heartache because this had become our home," said McKinlay, who had fought the RTB proceedings in his free time. "It's also, to be honest, a little bit embarrassing to say, here I am … I've been evicted." In the neighbouring municipalities of Victoria andEsquimalt, renovicted tenants are entitled to assistance such as compensation based on their length of tenancy, moving expenses, help relocating and, when renovations are complete, the right of first refusal to return to their unit for 20 per cent below market rate. Those policies do not exist in Oak Bay. McKinlay and another former tenant of the 14-unit building at 2161 Haultain St., say they were each given one month's rent when they were evicted — which they say made up just a fraction of their moving expenses and the higher rent prices they now pay. For McKinlay's two-bedroom apartment, his family had paid about $1,400 monthly. Now, he says, they pay about $1,000 more a month. Joanne Thorwaldson, who lived in the building for five years, now lives across the street. Her rent, she says, has doubled. "The process was really expensive and stressful," she said. "The toll, I think, is going to be yet to be told, because of course my rate of pay didn't double. My need for food doesn't change." A "large majority of suites" in the building were rented below the market rate prior to the evictions, according to the Capital Regional District's Regional Housing Acquisition Strategy, dated January 2024, which listed the building among several for sale or recently sold properties that could be acquired as affordable housing. In 2021, B.C. introduced changes to "eliminate most renovictions" by requiring landlords to prove to the RTB that necessary upgrades or repairs are only possible if the tenancy is ended, prior to issuing any evictions. The province also launched an online portal in 2024, to make clear to landlords what the conditions are for ending a tenancy and the risks associated with evicting tenants in bad faith. RTB documents show that in Rebeyka's application to the tenancy branch, he argued the 65-year-old Oak Bay building had aging components that needed to be replaced. He cited inspections from multiple contractors he hired who found the plumbing lines were about 40 years past their typical life expectancy. Rebeyka also said he wanted to upgrade the building's electrical system, add in-suite laundry, install new kitchens and redo the to Rebeyka, the building would be uninhabitable due to the renovations for at least a year, with water and electricity shut off for a significant portion of that time. But the landlord's Oak Bay tenants raised concerns to the RTB that Rebeyka had a history of buying properties and then evicting tenants to perform renovations, and questioned the "good faith" of his intentions. The CBC contacted Rebeyka over email multiple times seeking an interview and comment, but did not hear back in time for publication. In its decision, RTB arbitrator C. Amsdorf wrote that Rebeyka had all the permits in place for the work, and agreed that it was "not reasonable" for tenants to remain in the building due to the extent of the renovations. "I acknowledge that the Landlord has been involved in other situations where they have evicted occupants of a building for large scale renovations," Amsdorf wrote in the decision. "However, I do not find this is evidence of bad faith, as the Landlord is legally entitled to apply for this type of an order of possession, provided they meet the criteria." McKinlay says he feels a closer look should be taken at landlords with a history of renovictions. "While I respect the outcome of the RTB process — and appreciate its very existence — I am curious how other neighbourhood buildings of similar age and maintenance histories can undergo significant renovations without evicting tenants," said McKinlay. Douglas King, executive director of Victoria-based non-profit Together Against Poverty, says the situation shows the current system isn't up to the task of preventing renovictions, particularly as it puts a burden on tenants, who are often under-resourced compared to landlords. "It's often left to the tenants to try to prove that the landlord doesn't require vacancy to do the repairs that they stated, and that's not realistic," he said. Renovictions don't just affect the tenants who are displaced, King says. It can create more demand for subsidized housing, putting further pressure on limited support and available units. "When we fail to protect low income housing stock, one of the only places that can be affordable to someone on disability or seniors … everybody pays the price," he said. Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch says he would support introducing similar renter assistance policies in his municipality to those that exist in Victoria and Esquimalt, but thinks the responsibility should lie with the province to standardize tenant assistance measures, so that all B.C. renters have the same rights. Murdoch says it's B.C., through the RTB — not municipalities — that should be in charge of making sure tenants are protected from bad faith renovictions and supported if eviction is necessary. "Our preference and most preferences in the province would be that the province look at this carefully, because it appears to not be working the way it was intended to work," he said. "They're supposed to be addressing this." Between July 2021, when B.C. introduced the new renoviction application process, and March 2025, the Ministry of Housing said there were 209 applications filed to evict tenants to complete major renovations. Of the applications that were addressed in that period, 87 were withdrawn, 68 were dismissed, 29 were granted landlord possession, 15 were settled with landlord possession, and seven were mixed decisions containing multiple units. According to the Ministry of Housing, the RTB conducts post-eviction audits to ensure landlords follow through on their reasons for evictions. McKinlay says he feels there should be a government registry to track all developers who have a history of renovicting tenants from multiple properties, including those allowed to do so by the RTB. "Tracking developers who renovict in a serial manner, as my former landlord does, allows the government to raise the question, 'Are all these truly necessary?'" Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the province will begin to post decisions on rental-related fines — including false evictions — online in June, to provide an opportunity for people to see which buildings are illegally acting as "serial renovictors." B.C. has also increased fines for those abusing the system. However, he says he feels it's on municipalities — like Oak Bay — to provide the support McKinlay is asking for. "There are a lot of measures that we put in place to support renters, and if there's more opportunities we'll certainly look at that," Kahlon said. "At this point, we believe local governments should be stepping up and putting their own policies in place." With no one claiming responsibility for these protections, it's unclear how — and if — change will ever come. And even if it does, it's too late for McKinlay and his former neighbours. "Someone asked me the other day if I've begun to settle into our new home, and I'm not sure that's possible after this experience," said McKinlay. "My sense of home has been altered by this."
