As I am sure all of my investor clientele already know that the Fairness Rental Act, 2017 was passed earlier this year. It is full of wonderful surprises for my Landlords. When it passed Royal Assent on May 30th it was back dated so that all exempted increases done at the end of April would be void.
An then the second phase came in on September 1, 2017 regarding personal use of the unit and renovations.
The first change was the corporation can no longer apply for personal use. The Courts had upheld that if there was only one director to the corporation, then it would be allowed, but that has now been corrected by the new legislation; it is just not allowed.
Then we have the new compensation laws, where if you are using your unit for personal use, you must give the tenant one month’s compensation and that compensation must be given before the termination date in the notice. This is the same with the compensation for renovations or demolitions; the compensation must be given before the termination date, and this compensation could equal up to three months of rent.
Lastly, we have the new burden of proof for bad faith evictions. Affidavits are mandated now for personal use applications and the deponent must swear that they are staying in the unit for at minimum of one year.
There will be more to come. The government closed the request for input as to what the new Leases should include so we are just waiting for the standard leases to be released. Apparently, there will be classes of leases with new rules in effect along with them.
These are just some of the highlights I thought might be of interest, there is so much more added as well. Keep a watch on the Landlord and Tenant website for updates or of course, contact me!
