New Vancouver council moves to ban 'renovictions'

Vancouver’s new city council passed a motion Tuesday night to protect renters from “renovictions.”

Coun. Jean Swanson, a longtime housing activist, introduced the motion, calling for the city to ban landlords from evicting tenants when they renovate or sell buildings or homes, also known as “renovicting.”

The motion also requires landlords to offer tenants the option to move out temporarily during renovations without ending their lease or increasing rent. This supports existing laws in B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act.

The motion was in part based on a report that said 56 rental buildings with 2,456 units had been sold in Vancouver between January and October.

“Losing affordable rental housing stock to renoviction and buyouts will nullify the positive impact of new lower-income social housing that governments and nonprofits can build,” the motion reads.

City staff will also look into parts of the motion that did not pass, including calling on the province to tie rental rates to the unit instead of the renter as a way to stop landlords from hiking rents when the renter moves out.

The decision comes as the province’s Rental Housing Task Force is expected to make recommendations on housing issues in B.C. sometime in December.

@ashwadhwani ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.caLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.