The Government of New Brunswick, after months of dragging its feet, with no consultation, has released proposed amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act of New Brunswick.
For the past year, the NB Coalition for Tenants Rights has been sounding the alarm on the fact that tenants in New Brunswick have far fewer rights than tenants almost anywhere else in Canada. There is no rent control, no eviction protection, no security of tenure and hardly any recourse at the Residential Tenancies Tribunal.
Sadly, the proposed amendments do nothing to solve any of these problems. Although, on the face of it, the bill appears to provide some protection by limiting the number of rent increases a tenant can face to once a year, and by allowing the tribunal to review rent increases in more circumstances rather than in the narrow set of circumstances under the current framework, these changes are smoke and mirrors.
Limiting the number of times rent can increase, or even increasing the amount of notice for a rent increase does not solve the problem that there is no limit to rent increases.
The bill proposes that rent increases under some lease agreements would only be permitted if it were imposed on all comparable units in a building. It also proposes that rent increases would be allowed it if is "reasonable" in relation to rent charged for comparable units in a given geographical area.
Given that rents have increased by significant amounts, this protection is meaningless. Moreover, it would only take a few properties to have their rents raised significantly for what is "comparable" to change.
We have long maintained that what we need is meaningful protections for tenants. The only thing that controls rents is rent control.
This proposed legislation falls far short of what is needed to adequately protect the right to housing in New Brunswick.