The cost of unresolved residential tenancy issues can be steep. And if you’re a business owner, a lease dispute can quickly impact your operations, profitability, and cash flow.
Here’s everything you need to know about landlord-tenant lease disputes.
Rather than one federal law, provincial acts across Canada govern the landlord-tenant relationship.
One of the active Statues of British Columbia is the Residential Tenancy Act [SBC 2002]. The RTA covers everything from the allowed rent increases to penalties and dispute resolution.
Here’s a quick overview of the rights and obligations of both landlords and tenants:
The RTA gives landlords several rights, including:
Some of the rights that the BC Tenancy Act guarantees for tenants are:
The RTA also governs tenant eviction, and the process varies based on the circumstances.
For non-payment cases, the act requires a simple 10-day notice. Tenants have until the fifth day to either pay the full rent or apply for dispute resolution. Otherwise, they’re expected to vacate the property by the 10th day.
Failing to pay utilities required by the tenancy agreement, however, warrants a 30-day written notice. Once the 30 days are over, the landlord can consider the unpaid utilities a form of unpaid rent and issue a 10-day notice.
The statute also allows for a one-month for-cause eviction, with the common causes being:
Tenants still have the right to challenge the one-month for-cause eviction notice if they feel that it’s unfair. However, they have to do it within 10 days.
It’s also worth noting that two, three, and four-month eviction notices exist within the RTA’s guidelines. They’re focused on subsidized rent disqualification and landlords’ use, though.
The BC Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) is the agency that oversees and administers the RTA. It’s where you can go for forms, guides, call centre support, and even webinars on interpreting tenancy-related laws.
Plus, the RTB is responsible for handling landlord-tenant disputes since it has its own team of arbitrators, adjudicators, and facilitators.
It’s also authorized to issue legally binding decisions, such as canceling unjust eviction notices and ordering someone to repair a unit. The BC tenancy branch can give permission to change locks and withhold money from future payments as well.
And while the RTB can work with local police to investigate serious violations, it doesn’t investigate dispute cases or offer any legal advice.
It’s on you (or your legal representative) to present evidence during the hearing, and the arbitrators and adjudicators simply make decisions based on the facts.
The RTB doesn’t handle all tenancy-related disputes, though.
For instance, a case of discrimination in tenancy premises would actually fall into the BC Human Rights Tribunal’s lap.
Plus, the RTB only deals with disputes with monetary claims of $35,000 or less. If your dispute involves a bigger claim, you’ll have to take it to the BC Supreme Court.
Late or non-payment is the leading cause for for-cause disputes and evictions. Still, it’s worth noting that at-fault evictions only make up about 15% of all evictions in BC. And on the national level, evictions due to late or non-payment account for 5.5% of all evictions.
The Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre reports that repair is the second most common issue facing tenants in BC, right after eviction. After all, much of the purpose-built rental housing in the region is aging and in need of maintenance.
We’ve covered the RTB’s role briefly and how handling lease disputes is one of its responsibilities. To do so, it splits disputes into four main types:
Once you figure out which category your dispute falls into, you can apply online using your BCeID account. You can also browse past decisions to try to figure out the likely outcome for your own dispute.
The BC-based Harbourview Law features a team of experienced real-estate lawyers offering a range of lease, tenant-landlord, and land-use dispute resolution services. We bring industry-specific expertise and proactive risk management to each case.
Contact us today for more information on enforcing lease terms, protecting your rights, and resolving renewal disagreements.
We bring real-world business and construction experience to every case. We understand how legal challenges impact your project or operations, so our approach is focused on resolving issues quickly, efficiently, and with your bottom line in mind.
Disputes are an inevitable part of doing business, but they come at a high cost in time, money, and energy. Our goal is to resolve them as quickly as possible so you can get back to what matters most: running your business.
We’re proud of our high client retention. Many of our clients come to us after experiencing frustration with prior representation. They come to us with cases that weren’t moving forward and legal bills that kept piling up. We take a different approach: proactive communication, steady progress, and lasting partnerships built on trust and results.