VANCOUVER—A B.C. government task force is recommending a halt to renovictions but is not advising that rent-increase limits be applied to apartments when tenants move out.

The task force is also not recommending any change to landlords’ existing ability to ban pets from rentals.

The recommendations are a disappointment to tenant advocates who were arguing for vacancy control as a way to reduce the profit motivation to evict existing tenants: current rent rates are often double what long-time tenants are paying. A developer lobby group, the Urban Development Institute, had warned that implementing vacancy control would put a halt to 12,000 units of new rental housing.

Spencer Chandra Herbert, the NDP MLA who chaired the task force, said the task force decided not to implement vacancy control out of concern that the move would stifle investment.

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“We believe that landlords need to invest in their property,” he said during a press conference in Victoria. “We need more rental housing.”

If government adopts the recommendations, renovictions would effectively be banned, Chandra Herbert said. He gave the example of a landlord he knows in Vancouver’s West End who replaced wiring, pipes and windows in a 10-storey building, all while the tenants continued to live in the building.

“If renters are willing to accommodate renovictions in their homes, they should be allowed to stay in their homes,” he said.

Landlords will now have to submit evidence to the Residential Tenancy Branch that tenants must be evicted in order to complete the renovation. A recent B.C. Supreme Court case judgment stated that tenants who are willing to accommodate renovations, including temporarily moving out, should not have their tenancy ended. Chandra Herbert said the recommendation would mean that landlords would very rarely be evicting in order to renovate.

The recommendations follow a recent City of Vancouver motion that also required landlords to renovate around tenants, instead of evicting them.

Vivian Baumann, a renter who was the plaintiff in that case, is still uneasy about how landlords might try to use the provision that they have to provide evidence.

“I am concerned that landlords will gather up their case that they need to evict the tenants,” Baumann said, who disputes her landlord’s assertion that her apartment needed to be rewired, replumbed and that there was mould in the bathroom. She said the current process involves landlords providing information from contractors they themselves have hired, and she believes there should be an independent assessment of whether tenants need to leave in order complete the work.

David Hutniak, the CEO of LandlordBC, said his organization welcomes the recommendations, even though LandlordBC is hoping the B.C. Supreme Court ruling will be overturned on appeal.

Hutniak said most landlords do not empty buildings in order to renovate, but invest in renovations over time.

The task force is not recommending a change to the ability of landlords to ban pets because “concerns were raised about allergies, damage and disturbances to other renters. Some housing providers indicated that they would rather remove homes from the rental market than be forced to allow people with pets to rent their properties.”

Eliot Galan created the Facebook group Pets OK BC, and has been advocating for renters with pets for several years. Over 1,500 pets are surrendered to the BC SPCA every year because their owners can’t find a rental that will allow them, Galan said.

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“This is one of the biggest issues facing renters in B.C.,” Galan said. His group asked the task force to follow Ontario’s lead in allowing pets by default, but “if there’s someone on the premises with allergies, that’s would be a legitimate reason (to not allow animals).”

The report also recommends eliminating the ability of condo strata councils to ban rentals in a condo building. But stratas should also be given the ability to evict problem tenants, according to the report.

The government will now consider the task force’s 26 recommendations.

With files from David P. Ball and Perrin Grauer

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