VANCOUVER—Two Vancouver city councillors want to look at whether the city can withhold building permits or even remove business licences from landlords who evict all the tenants in a building to renovate and then rent the units at much higher rates.

More than 50 people spoke to council this week at two sessions regarding a motion from COPE councillor Jean Swanson, which calls for more protections for tenants facing “renoviction and aggressive buyouts.” Council will debate and vote on the motion the evening of Dec. 4.

“I’m remembering back in the old days when Harry Rankin was on council,” said Swanson, referring to a populist left-wing city councillor who held the position from the 1970s to the 1990s.

“There used to be a process called a show-cause, where he would drag people to city council to show cause why their business licence should not be suspended. So I’m in the process of investigating whether we could do that.”

Some of the speakers shared their experiences dealing with VS Rentals, a company that owns older apartment buildings in Vancouver, New Westminster and Coquitlam.

According to interviews with six tenants from four different buildings, VS Rentals has repeatedly offered buyouts, then attempted to evict tenants who refuse.

StarMetro spoke to several senior tenants who said they are scared and have had health problems from the stress of dealing with the situation.

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After several media stories about the company’s tactics appeared this week, the company’s vice-president, Christopher Evans, told Postmedia the company would change its business model and would no longer require tenants to move out.

StarMetro attempted to speak to Evans, but a receptionist first said there was “no such person” at the company and then said Evans was not available.

Over the course of a week, StarMetro has repeatedly tried to contact VS Rentals, but the company has said it will not comment, including for this story.

Lorna Allen, a tenant who has been fighting eviction from a VS Rentals building for a year, said her advocate at the Vancouver Tenants Union had gotten through to the company on Thursday following Evan’s comments about changing the business model.

“I think they’re wanting to discuss the situation, which is positive considering we didn’t get any response to our emails,” said Allen. “But they haven’t withdrawn the eviction notice.”

However, tenants in two New Westminster buildings also operated by VS Rentals had not heard anything new about whether the company would stop pushing them to leave.

One of the buildings the company operated in Vancouver’s West End was listed for sale for $10.8 million on Nov. 29, with the mostly empty state of the building described as a selling point.

“With 17 of the 24 units vacant, this represents a great opportunity for an investor to complete a renovation program,” says the listing in the Goodman Report, a newsletter published by a commercial real-estate firm. The building was last sold earlier this year for $8.75 million.

Swanson and Pete Fry, a Green councillor who plans to support Swanson’s motion, said the experiences of people living under VS Rentals show tenants need more protection.

Swanson’s motion calls for the city to track buyout offers and ask the province to implement vacancy control, which means tying rent control to the unit instead of the tenant. It means that landlords would not be able to raise the rent beyond B.C.’s maximum annual increase when tenants move out.

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Landlords and developers have pushed back hard against that proposal, Fry said, and have warned that new rental construction could halt if vacancy control is put into place.

About half of Vancouver resident are renters — and a third of them are paying unaffordable rent compared to their income, Fry said.

“We’ve been having this cautious approach for a while, and there’s a sense out there that there needs to be a change,” he said.

Fry said city building inspectors should have the ability to assess whether tenants really have to move out in order for renovations to be completed and should be able to deny building permits to landlords who are trying to unnecessarily evict tenants.

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