Today, the BC Provincial Government announced a whole host of new plans to try and protect renters, and that includes extending the rent freeze announced last year. If passed, the rent freeze will last until the end of 2021, instead of expiring this summer. Here’s a quick rundown.
The BC government has more or less a three-pronged approach to dealing with Vancouver’s (and the rest of BC’s) rental woes. First, they want to require landlords to apply at the Residential Tenancy Branch if they want to evict tenants for the purpose of renovating.
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Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver-West End and chair of the Rental Housing Task Force, on behalf of David Eby, Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing, who will be available to speak about new legislation to help renters.
https://t.co/kCj5wZ2vmD— BC Government News (@BCGovNews) March 1, 2021
We already mentioned the whole rent freeze thing, which is the second part of the plan. But finally, they also want to cap future rent increases so that they are in line with the rate of inflation, starting in 2022. Before BC started cracking down on predatory rentals in 2017, the maximum rent increase was as high as 4.3%, which is almost double the average rate of inflation.
And, this is more or less when where we bow out to some more, ahem, technical rundowns. So, if you’d like to learn more about the rent freeze planned this year, and the other measures BC wants to take, then you can check out this press release.
Enjoy the day, folks!
