Quotations by Kris Anderson

According to "privacy Guidelines For Landlords and Tenants" released by the Office of the Information Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, landlords should not require that tenants provide their Social Insurance Number on either tenancy application forms or rental agreements. A landlord should not demand a tenant's banking / credit card information as a condition of renting a property. A landlord may ask to examine a person's driver's licence in order to verify the person's identity. However, the landlord must not write down or photocopy this personal information. A potential landlord cannot ask you to pay a fee to simply apply to rent a place. [2015] - Kris Anderson

The new Residential Tenancy Act allows landlords to charge extra fees for certain services, such as direct cost of replacing keys or other access devices / additional keys you request, service fees charged by banks for NSF cheques, move-in / move-out fees charged by a strata corporation to the landlord and fees for services or facilities requested by you that aren't covered in your tenancy agreement (e.g. parking fee). As long as your tenancy agreement states, you may be charged a fee of not more than $25 for a NSF cheque or late payment of rent. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Your landlord is required to pay you interest on our security deposit. However, the amount of interest required to be paid is established yearly by the government. Some years you will not receive any interest on your deposit if the prime lending rate of the principal banker to the Province is less than 4.5 percent on the first day of the calendar year. You can go to www.gov.bc.ca/landlordtenant and use the rate calculator to find out how much you are owed. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Your landlord is responsible for repairing heating, plumbing, electricity, locks, walls/floors/ceilings (including water leaks/holes), fire doors/escapes, intercoms, elevators, fridge/stove, laundry facilities, furniture included in your rent and garages/storage sheds. [2015] - Kris Anderson

The law says that your landlord has to post the name and phone number of an emergency contact person some place in your building where you can easily see it. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Landlords can raise rents by a set amount each year and can apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch for rent increases above that amount. The percentage for allowable rent increases is the consumer price index (based on the annual rate of inflation) plus two percent. Your landlord can raise your rent once a year starting 12 months from the day you moved in and started paying rent. The landlord must give you notice in writing at least three full months before the increase starts. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Some agreements say that a guest who stays longer than two weeks is no longer a guest but an additional occupant. The landlord might then want to raise your rent because of the additional occupant or may say that you are breaching your tenancy agreement. The landlord does not have to give you a rent increase notice if your rent goes up because you have additional people move in with you. However, your landlord can only raise your rent based on additional occupants if your written tenancy agreement states how much your rent increases by the number of new occupants. [2015] - Kris Anderson

The Residential Tenancy Act allows the landlord to inspect the rental unit once a month as long as you are given the proper notice (between 24 hours and 30 days in writing, saying exactly what date/time they want to come in). If the landlord puts the notice in your mailbox or mail slot it's not considered received until after three days from the day it was delivered. It it was mailed, then it's not considered received until after five days from when it was mailed. Unless you agree to something else, your landlord can only come into your suite between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Your landlord can't change the locks because you haven't paid the rent. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Your landlord can only evict you for certain reasons set out in law, and must give you written notice. Landlords should use a form from the Residential Tenancy Branch. [2015] - Kris Anderson

In order for a landlord to end a tenancy due to illegal activity, the illegal activity must cause or be likely to cause damage to the landlord's property, adversely affect or be likely to adversely affect the quiet enjoyment/safety/physical well-being of another occupant of the residential property, or jeopardize/be likely to jeopardize a lawful right/interest of another occupant of the landlord. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Your landlord can evict you for not paying all or part of the rent. Your landlord must wait at least one day after the rent was due before giving you an eviction notice. If you get an eviction notice because you did not pay your rent, you have five days to pay. If you pay all the rent within five days, the notice is canceled. If you don't pay the rent within five days, you must move out at the end of the 10 days from when you received the eviction notice. [2015] - Kris Anderson

If you are given an eviction notice for "landlord use" you are entitled to one month's rent as compensation from your landlord. The landlord must either pay you this money or give you the last month's rent free. You can move out with a minimum of 10 days notice if you find another place before the two months are up. When you give a short notice, you only have to pay for the days that you actually live there. If you have a lease (also called a fixed term tenancy agreement), you cannot be evicted for landlord use before the lease runs out. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Your landlord can ask the RTB for an Order of Possession in the following two situations; 1) Your landlord served you with a Notice to End Tenancy and you failed to dispute it within the required timeline; 2) You did dispute the Notice to End Tenancy, but the RTB has refused to cancel the notice. Even after getting an Order of Possession, the only legal way a landlord can forcibly evict you is by obtaining a Writ of Possession from the BC Supreme Court, and then hiring a court bailiff to enforce the writ. If you stay past the date on an Order of Possession, you will be liable to pay the landlord compensation for the extra time you stayed at the unit. As well, if the landlord has to resort to hiring a court bailiff, you will be liable for the court bailiff fees. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Before using a court bailiff to evict you from your rental unit your landlord must do all of the following: 1) Serve you with a copy of the Order of Possession; 2) Wait for the 2-day review period to expire. (note: if you file an application for review during the 2-day review period, the RTB might put the Order of Possession on hold until your review application is decided. If that happens, your landlord has to wait until the review is decided, before moving on to the next step.); 3) Take the Order of Possession down to the BC Supreme Court Registry, and get a Writ of Possession from the Court (a very quick process); 4) Once the Writ of Possession is issued, hire a court-appointed bailiff to evict you. [2015] - Kris Anderson

Neither the police nor the RCMP has the authority to evict tenants. The police may attend the occasion to prevent the breach of peace but they cannot play any role in evicting the tenant, however, the police will attend and remove the tenant if required to do so by the court bailiff. [2015] - Kris Anderson