Here's what the City of New Westminster says about renovictions

The City of New Westminster wants the province to take action to address the angst that arises when tenants are kicked out of their homes during renovictions.

John Stark, the city’s acting manager of planning, said the city is aware of 10 buildings and 215 units where renoviction have occurred in New Westminster in the past three years.

“There may be renovictions that the city is not aware of – renovictions done without permits and where no complaints were filed with the city – so this number is likely an underestimate,” he said in an email to the Record. “These numbers are based on renovictions where there is evidence that the renoviction has actually occurred (building permit issued, etc.). The numbers of potential future renovictions or rumoured threats of renovictions would likely be much higher.”

The city has pursued a number of initiatives regarding renovictions, including distributing the Tenants Survival Guide to tenants being impacted by renovictions, providing tenants with information about whether the property owner has the required permits or approvals in place for renovations, putting forward resolution to Union of B.C. Municipalities to take the incentive out of renovictions and flagging changes in ownership around rental buildings and contacting tenants.

“We did put a resolution to the Union of B.C. Municipalities specifically to take the incentive out of renovictions,” Stark said. “That would be, after renovations have occurred that tenants would be given first right of refusal at a rent that would be no more than what they previously had, plus any annual adjustments. We have been working with the province to deal with this.”

If tenants have lived in buildings for 10 or 15 years, Stark said could be paying rents that are $300 or $400 below market rents, as the annual allowable increases haven’t kept up with changes in the market rents.

“For those individuals, if they are faced with having to relocate, it’s really difficult,” he told the Record after residents rallied against renovictions at a local apartment earlier this summer. “There are no units available at the rents they are currently paying. If they find a unit, sometimes they are having to make those difficult decisions as to food and other essentials. It definitely is an issue.”

Stark said renovictions create “a lot of uncertainty and angst” for tenants, but it’s an issue that must be dealt with at the provincial level through the Residential Tenancy Act.

“As a city, we cannot withhold a building permit. We have to process the building permit. It’s difficult. We don’t have that jurisdiction to withhold. We are hoping – there has been a lot of changes like fixed-term leases, provincially – and there have been some changes to the act, but we are hoping there are more changes because this is not just a problem in New West.”