policy
Like the BC Government before it, the Feds have made housing a priority of late. While some policies help to boost supply at the margin, they ultimately
will not have much of an impact on affordability.
AMENDING THE AMENDMENTS In April, the provincial government announced changes to the Residential Tenancy Act around evicting tenants for owners' personal use. The new policy, which came into effect on July 14th, changed the notice period for personal occupancy evictions from two months to four months. It sought to add protections to tenants who might be evicted in bad faith using the personal occupancy evictions in order to get new tenants at higher rents. The province also created a web portal, through which all personal occupancy evictions would be submitted in order to better ensure personal occupancy evictions were being used properly. The owner would also need to maintain their occupancy for a minimum of 12 months, up from six previously, and tenants now get 30 days to dispute a notice, up from 15.
Two weeks after the new rules came into effect, the province amended them again. The notice period for evictions by a purchaser who intends to occupy a dwelling was reduced from the new four-month period to three months. The new timelines can be challenging for landlords who wish to occupy their properties, and even at three months add complications to the sale of tenanted properties, particularly for buyers with insured mortgages, who require vacant possession. This will reduce the number of suitable options available to buyers who require mortgage insurance, many of whom are first-time homebuyers.
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