A group of Victoria tenants is fighting a mass eviction that they say is unfair during the pandemic.
In October, tenants at a 21-unit, three-storey apartment at 805 Cook St. were given notices saying they had to move out by Feb. 28 so the owners can do renovations.
“It’s been really devastating,” said Tom Kershaw, a 72-year-old who has lived in the building for nine and a half years. “It’s just been overwhelming, the stress.”
Kershaw pays $590 a month for a ground-floor bachelor suite and would likely have to pay double that for a new place. “We’re looking at a zero per cent vacancy rate and we’re in a pandemic,” he said.
Tenant Linda Hanson, 56, said several of the suites have been empty for months, so she wonders why the landlord did not start renovating those while they were vacant. “I just feel, and I think more tenants feel, it’s really not the right time to be evicting people,” said Hanson, who has lived in the building for 15 years and pays $740 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.
At least six tenants are disputing the eviction notices with the Residential Tenancy Branch, but because of a backlog in cases, they were told their hearing might not take place until February, which Hanson said is cutting it too close to the eviction date.
The eviction notice says the renovations include interior alterations to units such as new drywall, updated interior finishes and fixtures and new windows. Work will also be done on common areas, including a fire-alarm upgrade, hazmat removal and upgrades to electrical and mechanical systems. The landlord has obtained permits and approvals from the City of Victoria to do the work, according to the notice.
“This project is a full building upgrade and [the building] will be uninhabitable throughout,” the notice said, noting that there will be no heat, hot water or electricity.
Hanson said she was told by a previous building manager there’s no asbestos in the building, so she doesn’t think the building needs to be vacant to do the necessary repairs. The onus is on the landlord to prove to the Residential Tenancy Branch that the renovations cannot be done unless the building is vacant. According to the eviction notice, the landlord is Donald McInnes.
The building was purchased in November 2019 for $4.3 million, according to land title records. Reached by phone at the number provided on the notice, McInnes hung up when asked about the eviction. He did not respond to a follow-up text.
Some tenants have already moved out, but the group fighting the eviction is seeking help from Together Against Poverty, a Victoria-based tenants’ advocacy group. Antonia Mah, a legal advocate with TAPS working on the file, said many low-income renters have been financially hurt by the pandemic and the eviction adds to that stress.
The Residential Tenancy Act requires the landlord to give the tenant first right of refusal to enter into a new tenancy agreement for the suite, but Mah said most of the tenants cannot afford the higher rent of a renovated suite.
Mah said this is the first mass eviction TAPS is aware of in Greater Victoria since the B.C. government lifted a pandemic-related moratorium on evictions in September.
Another resident of the building, Joan Davy, who is in her early 60s, said being forced to look for another apartment right makes no sense when provincial health restrictions require people to avoid socializing outside their households.
“On one hand, I’m not supposed to see my family members at Christmas, but I’m being forced to enter multiple buildings [to look for an apartment]?”
Davy said if she has to find another one-bedroom suite in the current rental market, the rent alone would eat up 70 per cent of her income. “This isn’t an eviction for bad behaviour,” she said. “This is a completely baseless eviction. It’s a renoviction.”
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Coun. Jeremy Loveday said the city is looking into a bylaw that would discourage “renovictions” — tenants being evicted for renovations. It would be similar to a bylaw passed in 2019 by the City of New Westminster, which was upheld by the B.C. Supreme Court. New Westminster’s rules include fines for landlords who evict tenants without notice or without relocating them to other units.
Loveday said when planning staff currently consider a building permit for renovations, it’s not in their mandate to consider whether the work will result in evictions. However, a renovictions bylaw could give staff such a mandate.
In 2018, the B.C. government brought in changes to the Residential Tenancy Act requiring tenants to be given four months’ notice instead of two when their landlord asks them to vacate because of a renovation or demolition.
