Rental revolution

>> Proposed changes in rental laws make no one happy

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

With the passing of upcoming provincial legislation this fall, much of what you've finally figured out about our rental system may no longer apply.

The legislation contains some nuggets for tenants. Tenants will only be obliged to pay their first month's rent after the lease begins. They'll also be able to file for rent reductions if taxes or the cost of energy decrease. If the landlord wants to change conditions of a lease--including rent increases--he'll have to wait until the lease's final five months to request them. And when renting out an apartment, a landlord will only be allowed to ask applicants their name, date of birth, address and phone number, as well as the name and number of the tenants' current landlord.

However, the law will also allow landlords to evict tenants much faster. If a tenant doesn't come up with the rent or is chronically late in paying it, the landlord can file at the Rental Board and mail the tenant a registered letter. If the tenant doesn't refute the complaint with a registered letter of his own within 10 days, he'll be deemed to have lost the case. The tenant will be given 30 days to pay up all past rent or else hit the road.

Landlords are unhappy with the law, particularly the rule that limits the questions they can ask an applicant. "If a landlord cannot ask questions about the quality of the tenant, he can't be sure to be paid," says Pierre Aubry of Property Owners' League. "As it is now, landlords go through [credit information suppliers] Equifax, it's open, it's regulated and everybody knows what's going on. I'm pretty sure that this law can't pass and if it passes it won't be respected."

One aim of the proposed law is to expedite some of the approximately 35,000 cases the Rental Board hears each year over unpaid rent, which constitute over half of its caseloads. "Often the tenant doesn't even show up, he doesn't contest at all," says Marie-Andrée Jobin of the Rental Board. She also justifies the limits on the landlords' questions, which she says have gotten out of hand in recent years. "In some cases [prospective landlords] ask for the social insurance number of the mother, the mother-in-law's last name and these kinds of things."

But even tenants' activist Arnold Bennett questions whether the proposed limits on what a renter can ask an applicant are fair. "They make it so restrictive in theory that even legitimate questions are now excluded," says Bennett. "I think that it would be legitimate to ask for references from somebody's employer and bank."

He worries, however, that the government has done little to advise tenants about the new procedures. "Lots don't even know the current rules and these changes will require them to do some things they're not accustomed to, which is to file this thing within 10 days rather than wait for a hearing to defend themselves."

Although social housing group FRAPRU had some input into the changes, they don't go far enough for director François Saillant. "The government is extremely hypocritical. They give somebody just $500 a month to live on welfare and order him to pay his rent or get evicted," he says. "They're washing their hands of the problem but also guaranteeing the landlords get their revenues, which are, of course, a form of tax revenue."