The rental housing market in British Columbia needs a shake up to bring laws in line with current market conditions.
“One-and-a-half million British Columbians rent. Our laws haven’t kept up with the changing housing market, and that has left both renters and rental housing providers vulnerable,” said Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver-West End, who is chairing the province’s Rental Housing Task Force.
The Task Force will embark on a tour of the province next month to engage with tenants and landlords as part of its review of tenancy laws.
“Modernizing B.C.’s tenancy laws will provide more fairness for everyone and help to ensure that rental housing providers and renters are able to plan for the future,” added Chandra Herbert.
The tour will visit 10 communities and give the public an opportunity to express concerns about the rental market before spending the summer reviewing the challenges and issues facing BC renters and providers of rental housing.
“We’ve made some significant improvements in protections for landlords and renters in the past eight months. Now it is time to ask British Columbians about the issues they are still facing, and the solutions they propose,” said Ronna-Rae Leonard, MLA for Courtenay-Comox, and Rental Housing Task Force member. “Hearing from stakeholders and the public is critical to striking the right balance between rental housing providers and renters.”
The Province is investing $1.1 billion over 10 years to upgrade and improve existing subsidized rental housing throughout British Columbia and will also invest more than $7 billion over 10 years to build the kind of homes people need.
