B.C. government to launch website to combat 'bad faith' evictions

The B.C. government says a new online portal launching this month will combat bad-faith evictions made by landlords who falsely claim to be putting a property to "personal use," only to increase rent on the unit. 

The Ministry of Housing says the Landlord Use Web Portal will go live on July 18 and will require landlords to generate eviction notices under the Residential Tenancy Act's provision allowing tenants to be evicted from a unit if a family member or caretaker intends to move in. 

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the website will allow the government to gauge how often evictions occur under the personal-use provisions, which some landlords use under "false pretences."

The ministry says the portal will generate eviction notices for personal occupancy or caretaker use, and require landlords to provide information about the people taking over a unit. 

On the day the website goes live, the province says the amount of time tenants will have to dispute evictions increases from 15 days to 30, while landlords will have to provide four months' notice to tenants before a personal-use eviction, up from the previous two months. 

The ministry says the new portal will allow the Residential Tenancy Branch to conduct "post-eviction compliance audits" and track the frequency of personal-use evictions. 

'Good first step'

According to Amanda Burrows, executive director of social service provider First United, a project undertaken by the organization found that of about one thousand evicted tenants surveyed, nearly 60 per cent said their eviction was the result of the landlord claiming the unit for personal use.

Burrows said she couldn't say how many of the evictions were in bad faith, and that's why First United has been pushing the provincial government to collect the type of data that will be gathered through the new online portal.

"We believe that this portal is a very positive first step in trying to alleviate evictions that can create displacement and homelessness," she said, adding that requiring landlords to get permission to evict for personal use — similar to how it works for so-called 'renovictions' — would be a further improvement.

Burrows is also calling for vacancy control, in which rent controls are tied to units rather than tenants, as another way to reign in the housing affordability crisis.

Previous research has shown that no-fault evictions — which include landlords issuing eviction notices to renovate, demolish, sell or inhabit a unit — make up a large portion of evictions in B.C. and Canada.

Research from the University of British Columbia released in May 2023 show 85 per cent of evictions in B.C. were no-fault evictions from 2016 to 2021.

Statistics Canada has found that no-fault evictions are the most common reason for a tenancy to be terminated across the country.