Letter from TAPS Re: Christie Point Apartments – Capital Expenditure Rent Increase

RE: Christie Point Apartments – Capital Expenditure Rent Increase

Dear Mayor Tobias,

Thank you for your previous communication to our office regarding the tenants at Christie Point Apartments, and for your assistance in guiding some of those tenants to our office for help in responding to their landlord’s request for a very significant rent increase. TAPS has indeed had contact with multiple tenants and we have been retained to assist with the upcoming hearings at the Residential Tenancy Branch on July 30th and August 6th.

We share your concern about how these capital rent increases are impacting affordability, and our hope is that some of the stories from residents that you heard will also be carried by the media to bring to light some of the problems we have been seeing with these types of rent increases. In the coming months we will be speaking with the provincial government about the current legislation around capital expenditure rent increases and how it should be changed to better protect low-income tenants like many of the people living at Christie Point.

You may not be aware but the company which purchased Christie Point, Killam REIT, recently posted record profits of $127 million in just the first quarter of this year alone. In their own reports they specifically note that these profits are driven by the ability to increase their NOI, or Net Operational Income, meaning the revenue they bring in from buildings remains greater than their operating costs. Despite these profits Killam REIT is asking the residents of Christie Points to pay shocking increases in rent to cover the costs of basic repairs like roof and driveway replacement which will increase the value and equity of their properties. Worst of all, the province has not timed these rent increases to expire after the roof and driveway are repaired, so if allowed the low-income tenants in the building will continue to pay this significant rent increase in perpetuity.

We will do our best to help the tenants at the Residential Tenancy Branch to show how much these rent increases will impact them, but there are serious deficiencies in the laws around these rent increases which will make it hard for us to prevent the increase being allowed. Most notably, there is no provision in the rules around capital expenditure rent increases requiring the landlord to show that repairs to a building can’t be easily made through the revenue they currently collect in rent.

Thank you again for thinking of our organization in this situation and helping clients to find their way to us for support. We hope that yourself and the View Royal council will consider communicating directly to the Minister of Housing with your concern about these rent increases and the impact they have on affordability in View Royal. While we agree with many of the efforts made by the provincial government to increase housing stock and promote affordability, in our opinion the changes to capital expenditure rent increases have threatened to undermine many of those initiatives and put valuable affordable rental stock at risk.

Sincerely,

Douglas King Executive Director Together Against Poverty Society dking@tapsbc.ca Phone: (250) 361-3521 | Fax: (250) 361-3541 Direct Line : (250) 900-4482