Tenants seek answers on how rent cap will work
CBC
When Jason Stephenson heard that the Higgs government was bringing in a rent cap for apartment dwellers and other renters, he had just one question: How will it work?
The Fredericton resident got a notice from his landlord on Feb. 1 that his rent would increase on Aug. 1 by 11.2 per cent — way beyond the 3.8 per cent permitted under the new cap, announced Tuesday.
"My first question was, what's going to happen to this increase?" Stephenson said Wednesday.
"Am I going to get a smaller rent increase? Are they going to try to keep that? I don't know."
Stephenson said his landlord blamed the increase in part on rising property taxes. But the new provincial budget released Tuesday also includes a cut to property tax rates on apartment buildings by 50 per cent over the three years.
"That sort of blows that [rationale for an increase] out of the water," Stephenson said. "And yeah, so my first question is what's going to happen to this?"
The cap is retroactive to Jan. 1, so any rent hike on that date or since must comply.
Service New Brunswick Minister Mary Wilson did not speak to reporters Wednesday, the second straight day she was not available to comment on a major policy change from her department.
A spokesperson said in a late-afternoon emailed statement that tenants who've been charged more than the cap can deduct the overpayment from their next month's rent and then pay the amount equivalent to the 3.8 per cent increase.
Tenants with "questions and concerns" can contact the Residential Tenancies Tribunal, said spokesperson Jennifer Vienneau.
Stephenson said he dealt with the tribunal once before and it's not a very "tenant-friendly" process."
"There's a lot of bureaucracy involved and some landlords with deep pockets, they can bury a tenant in bureaucracy to a point where the tenant just throws their hands up and gives up."
New Brunswick's apartment vacancy rate plunged from 3.1 per cent to 1.7 per cent last year, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the steepest drop in the country.
That has helped fuel large rent increases for many tenants.
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