Tag: nova scotia landlords

Nova Scotia Needs Better Enforcement Of Their RTA

The provincial government has introduced changes in the bill

Nova Scotia’s population is booming. The pandemic-driven influx of people moving to the province coupled with the trend of rental properties being sold or converted to short-term rentals is creating a housing crisis. One of the ways that the government is dealing with the housing shortage is by changing the province’s tenancy laws.

People on both sides of the issue may have different views, but feel that there should be more compliance and enforcement of the province’s Residential Tenancies Act. When either landlords or tenants are found to be in violation of the law – and there’s plenty of that – there should be action.

The proposed changes to the bill, introduced last week as part of the government’s housing strategy, provide added protection against renovictions, higher rates of compensation for displaced tenants, and a two-year cap on rent increases. As per the CBC, Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services Minister Colton Leblanc said the rent cap bill, which holds annual increases for tenants staying in the same place to two percent, will mean security for renters while the government works to get more housing stock in place.

“Most landlords have been respectful and understanding to their tenants during these very difficult times and I would like to thank them for that,” Leblanc said during a bill briefing.” – Colton Leblanc

The housing crisis in Nova Scotia is drawing attention to the use of fixed-term leases, which are quickly becoming the new norm in the province and provide a potential loophole for landlords to bypass the province’s rent control cap. In monthly and yearly leases, the lease will automatically renew itself each month or year (depending on the type of lease) unless you give your landlord proper notice that you will not renew the lease. Fixed term leases do not have a notice period. The tenancy period ends on the date stated in the lease.

“While I’m super excited that Nova Scotia’s population is at a historic high, it’s also making those that are marginalized even more so. The ones that can’t afford the average market rents are suffering.” -Krista McNair of the Truro Homeless Outreach Society

The Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission, formed last November to study the province’s affordable housing situation, released recommendations on May 31, including a 61-page report from the province’s Affordable Housing Commission. It urged the government to spend a “quick-start investment” of $25 million to help 600 to 900 Nova Scotians find adequate and affordable housing in the next 18 months. On July 6, the provincial government announced it had committed to all 17 of the commission’s recommendations, including the quick start investment to build affordable units.

Are you a landlord in Nova Scotia? What has your experience been? Share with us!

Nova Scotia Needs To Revisit Their Residential Tenancies Act

There’s a serious loophole in the province’s law

This is a doozy of a story that both CBC and the National Post reported on. Jason Selby just wanted to rent his house out to a good tenant. When he met Nadav Even-Har, he thought he found one. He was presented with glowing previous references and an equally impressive credit report after he and his family (including two small children) came to an initial meeting with Selby.

“They rolled up in a BMW and Audi. They presented a credit report with a high score. Their references checked out and they have two young children, so I thought that … it would be wonderful to be able to have the home used for a family.”

Even-Har signed a 12-month, fixed-term lease for the home in Cole Harbour with rent at $2,000 per month, beginning in May of this year. The first rent check post signing of the lease, bounced in June, and he never saw another dime after that. The postdated rent cheques Selby received were written from closed bank accounts.

This is how is it all went down…

He initially gave the family a 45 day grace period in good faith. After that yielded nothing but excuses from Even-Har, Selby applied to Service Nova Scotia for an eviction. Two weeks later, he filed for a hearing before a residential tenancy officer. When Even-Har didn’t appear at the hearing, he was ordered to pay more than $5,000 in rent and to leave by Sept. 1. Selby obtained an eviction order on September 3rd.

Even-Har immediately appealed to Nova Scotia’s Residential Tenancies board and the eviction was stayed until a court hearing on Sept. 23.

When Selby showed up for the hearing, Even-Har again wasn’t present, and Selby was granted a court order to evict him. When Selby removed Even-Har’s belongings from the home on Sept. 29, Even-Har called police. The police arrived and did not accept Selby’s notice of vacant possession. A spokesperson for Nova Scotia’s Justice Department said Even-Har went back to the court before the eviction decision by the Residential Tenancies board was reflected in the computer.

Another stay order was issued – but the court ultimately admitted it was issued in error. Once that was established, Selby moved to proceed with the eviction with a sheriff, only to find out that Even-Har had appealed his eviction to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and delayed the process until another  court date on Oct. 11. Keep in mind, at this point – Even-Har was in arrears more than $8000. Selby vented about his experience on Facebook.

That’s when he heard from Lori Sampson of Cole Harbour. She said she had rented her home at 60 Tamara Dr. to Even-Har in August 2018 and had a similar experience.

Then Jaro Schubert came forth. He owns a café and Airbnb in Fall River, N.S. He said Even-Har owes him nearly $5,000 for rent and food dating back to this spring.

On October 15th, CBC News published a story after having spoken to the eight  (you read that right) landlords who said they’ve failed to collect rent or damage deposits from Even-Har between 2013 and last month. With the cat out of the bag – Even-Har tried to get in front of the growing story with an interview with CBC for that same piece. He defensively admitted to the trend and vowed to make amends to the previous landlords he’d wronged while comparing his situation to someone who is caught up in a payday loan cycle. The intimate knowledge of the provincial appeal process, the granting of stays, the timing of data being entered into Service Nova Scotia databases, and the pattern of not being available for hearing dates for a variety of reasons are also obviously elements to his circumstances that he didn’t intend to play out as they did. The ability to delay and defer on a landlord’s dime in Nova Scotia is problematic.

Patricia Arab, the minister responsible for Service Nova Scotia, said the Even-Har case has led her department to look to other jurisdictions for guidance on how to avoid similar incidents.

“Even if it’s just this one individual … it’s opened up an issue that’s an important one to address so we don’t get to a point where people are using this loophole in the Residential Tenancies Act to avoid rent.”

The story ends on a good note. On October 16th, Selby reclaimed possession of the home, but is still out over $8000. He is advocating for a provincial review of the Residential Tenancies Act. Frankly, it’s needed. Provincial governments need better mechanisms in place to more effectively identify and deal with glaringly obvious cases of professional tenancy like this as early in the process as possible. Otherwise, single instances like this, as has been demonstrated, yield hundreds of thousands of dollars of loss.

Nova Scotia Changes Their Landlord & Tenant Act

Changes are a brewin’ in Nova Scotia. The province has made some amendments (what many landlords and renters consider to be overdue) to their landlord and tenant act that have taken effect November 15th.

Nova Scotia is a bit of a unique landscape for landlords and renters alike. OpenFile published a story in August entitled How To Survive Renting in Halifax – a piece that shone the light on some bad Haligonian landlord situations involving security deposits and issues related to the reasonable enjoyment of some occupied units.  The below is an excerpt from the piece by Lizzy Hill:

At first glance, our city seems like an ideal spot to rent an apartment in. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in 2011 was $925, compared with $1,237 in Vancouver and $1,149 in Toronto. And while other cities across Canada recently experienced slight decreases in their apartment vacancy rates, Halifax’s vacancy rates increased from 2.8 per cent in April 2011 to 3.2 per cent in April 2012—people haven’t been snatching up apartments as quickly as they did in years past, so renters presumably have a little more to choose from.

The Residential Tenancies Program sees around 5,000 applications to the director each year—meaning around five per cent of tenant-landlord relationships require dispute/resolution services each year, according to Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations’ spokesperson Susan Mader-Zinck. And those are just the cases that make it through theboard program’s bureaucratic application process.

CBC also published a story back in April of this year about groups of residents who were demanding better conditions on units they’ve been renting, and calling for a crackdown on bad landlords. Yikes.

The first significant change is that renters will now have automatic tenure – or right to tenancy, which means landlords have to provide a reason to evict a resident, and there has to be a hearing. Fixed term leases are an exception to this. Prior to these changes, tenants didn’t have tenure until they’d been living in an apartment for five years – at which point they were considered a long-term tenant and were afforded more rights. In that five years, a landlord could opt not to renew a tenant without reason. Some landlords will view this as a negative implication in the act’s changes, as in effect, it makes evicting tenants who pose a problem more difficult. Another perspective on this is that landlords will be extra particular when choosing a candidate to sign a lease with.

Another big change is that rent can only be 15 days late before the landlord can give a tenant notice that the lease will end. Tenants used to have 30 days under the old act. This is a positive change for landlords to be able to react at the RTP level. Another big change includes giving tenants on fixed-term leases the ability to end their leases early, without financial penalties, for health reasons, as landlords need to have the properties in good condition on all times if they want to rent it, and that’s why if a problem happens and a pipe broke they need to use a Water Damage Restoration Matawan service to fix this as soon as possible.

Landlords are now required to give a copy of the Residential Tenancies Act to tenants within 10 days of the lease being signed, the keys being provided, the stated date of move in on a lease, or the move in date itself.

Some of these changes are efforts to address some of the concerns residents have about complaints to landlords resulting in a simple request to leave.

For more information on these changes, check out the following links:

Are you a landlord in Nova Scotia? What do you think of these changes? Share your stories and perspectives here. We’d love to hear them.