British Columbia’s Rent Increase for 2011

by | Aug 30, 2010 | Rental Property Management Tips

Landlords in British Columbia will be allowed to raise rents by 2.3% in 2011.

For a manufactured home park tenancy, the allowable increase is 2.3 per cent plus a proportional amount. 

If the landlord charges an amount in excess of the stated increase, the tenant does not have to pay the excess rent unless the tenant has been served with a dispute resolution officer’s order allowing a larger rent increase.

Residential tenancy landlords can ask a dispute resolution officer to allow a larger increase, using the Application for Additional Rent Increase form, if the landlord has completed significant repairs or renovations that could not reasonably have been foreseen and are not recurring with a reasonable time period, incurred a financial loss from an extraordinary increase in operating expenses, or incurred a financial loss from an increase in financing costs that could not have been reasonably foreseen.

A landlord seeking an additional rent increase under the above grounds must make a single application to increase the rent for all units in the building.

A residential tenancy landlord can also seek an additional rent increase if the rent for a rental unit is significantly lower than that of similar units in the area. A landlord who, as the head tenant of a rental unit, receives an additional rent increase can also apply for dispute resolution for an additional rent increase on that basis to increase the rent to a subtenant.

In both residential and manufactured home site tenancies, the landlord is required to give the tenant three months notice of a rent increase in the approved form. 

The Residential Tenancy Branch forms required for rent increases in British Columbia are available at www.rto.gov.bc.ca/content/formsFees/default.aspx.

Earlier this year, the Ontario government approved a rent increase figure of 0.7%.  For more on that, see Ontario’s Rent Increase Disappoints Landlords.

This post is provided by Tenant Verification Service, Inc., helping landlords reduce the risks of renting with fraud prevention tools that include Tenant Screening, Tenant Background Checks, (U.S. and Canada), as well as Criminal Background Checks, and Eviction Reports (U.S. only).

Click Here to Receive Landlord Credit Reports.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post in not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.

shiftsuite
Property management software for Canadian Condos.

Property Boss

Property management software for single family, multifamily, and student housing.

TVS

Screening services for property managers and landlords. Select a market below.

USA

Canada