VANCOUVER — Adam Saint had planned to stay in his West End apartment for years. It was in a funky heritage building with renovated interiors, just off Davie Street and a few blocks from the beach.

But as the end of his first year approached, the building’s owner Gordon Nelson Inc. told him that the rent for his one-bedroom suite would jump from $1,550 to $1,850 a month if he wanted to stay — an increase of close to 20 per cent.

“It was a real disappointment,” Saint said.

It was especially frustrating because it’s completely legal. That’s because management at Gordon Nelson insisted he sign a fixed-term lease for the apartment at 1209 Jervis St., taking advantage of what some describe as a troubling loophole in the Residential Tenancy Act.

In B.C., landlords who use month-to-month rental agreements must abide by annual caps on rent increases — this year, it was 2.5 per cent. Landlords who uses fixed-term leases that include “move out” clauses, on the other hand, can raise rents by whatever amount they choose once the term is up.

Saint and his girlfriend considered signing on for a second year, until they learned that their next lease would be fixed-term as well — leaving them open to another massive increase in a year.

“That was the breaking point,” Saint said.

He decided to move out at the end of August. He and his girlfriend bought a place in the West End, but he worries about fellow tenants who may not have that option.

The fixed-term lease has been an issue for tenants since the Residential Tenancy Act came into effect in 2003, according to Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre advocate Russ Godfrey.

“It’s just disgusting. There’s nothing illegal about it but it’s one of the reasons why the rents in the Lower Mainland are just skyrocketing,” he said.

“Quite frankly, it is the way landlords circumvent rent control.”

Godfrey believes the problem could be solved with an order in council that would require landlords to adhere to rent control limits even when they’re using fixed-term leases.

“The government has been completely silent on this,” he said.

Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP MLA for Vancouver West End, said another option would be requiring landlords to switch over to a month-to-month lease after the fixed term is up.

“It just seems like using a loophole to try to gouge money out of people, and that’s not how the law is supposed to work,” he said.

The problem isn’t a new one, but the complaints seem to come in waves, he added. This is the first he’s heard in at least six months: “All it takes is one landlord who tries to game the system.”

Rich Coleman, the minister responsible for housing, was unavailable to comment Thursday.

Instead, a government spokeswoman responded with an email, attributed to the RTB’s executive director Greg Steves, which explained how fixed-term tenancy agreements work. The email said these leases, “balance the needs and interests of landlords and tenants, providing security of tenure for tenants and guaranteed income for landlords.”