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Patty Gazzola had rented her Commercial Drive-area home for 29 years by the time she was evicted in the spring.

The 69-year-old Vancouver woman was told by her landlord that her house had been sold and that the buyer or a close family member of the buyer intended to live in it. She was given two months to get out.

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“It was a shock,” she said in a recent interview.

But after Gazzola moved out of the home at 1828 Graveley St., the new owners never moved in, she claims. Instead, higher paying tenants unrelated to the new owners did, she alleged in an affidavit filed as part of her appeal to the provincial residential tenancy branch for compensation.

Complaints over wrongful evictions are rising fast, according to the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre, and Gazzola can now count herself among thousands of B.C. residents who have fought evictions in the past year. Some critics and experts say the penalty for landlords found breaking the rules is too weak, allowing owners to consider it as a minor cost of doing business in a hot — and lucrative — rental market.