Port Moody is making it tougher for landlords to evict tenants so they can renovate or repair their unit.
At their meeting July 28, city councillors gave three readings to amend existing bylaws that will require landlords to have all the necessary permits in place before they can issue a notice of termination to a tenant living in a unit to be repaired or renovated. The landlord must also offer the tenant being displaced a comparable unit in the same building, on the same or better terms.
If that’s not possible, other temporary arrangements can be made in writing, along with a commitment to allow the tenant to return to their original apartment after the repairs or renovations have been completed with no increase in rent.
Landlords that don’t comply with the new rules would face a fine of $500.
In a report, Port Moody’s social planner, Liam McLellan, said the new rules are modelled after similar bylaws in Port Coquitlam and New Westminster.
He said they “will ensure landlords repair or renovate units in a manner where the tenant does not have to move, or the tenant is allowed to move back into the unit at the same rental rate,” McLellan said, adding many of the city’s 532 rental suites located in multi-unit buildings were constructed before 1977 and are likely in need of upgrades or replacement.
The enhanced protection from renovictions is one of several recommendations issued by council’s affordable housing task force in its interim report that was presented in April.
On July 14, council endorsed several more recommendations from the task force’s final report including the implementation of exclusionary zoning, better incentives to encourage the construction of more rental housing and minimum thresholds for the number of family-friendly units to be included in new developments.
