Vancouver Councillors Call for Tougher Tenant Protections

Vancouver councillors voted Wednesday to explore new tenant protections after news reports and increasing complaints about landlords spying on tenants, aggressive eviction attempts and allegations of unsafe room partitions.

Green Party Coun. Pete Fry’s motion calling for increased tenant protections passed unanimously Wednesday at a council standing committee. Just over half of Vancouver residents rent their homes.

The motion asks city staff to report back on the feasibility of a new annual rental business licence for multi-unit landlords to “ensure minimum standards of maintenance, accountability, and enforcement.”

Fry told The Tyee that the city needs to step up to close a gap between provincial and municipal oversight of rental housing. The provincial Residential Tenancy Branch applies its decisions only to specific tenants and their landlords, not to the entire building or suite of buildings the landlord owns.

Fry said the majority of multi-unit Vancouver landlords operate ethically.

“But there are an increasing number of corporate landlords who are abusing tenants, and they’re finding this sort-of grey area of loopholes between the city’s Standards of Maintenance Bylaw and the province,” he said. Some landlords are unlawfully making money off short-term rentals, including for the coming FIFA World Cup games.

“It is a real cause for concern.”

Fry’s motion includes a list of unethical landlord practices documented by Vancouver news media in recent years, including The Tyee.

These include partitioning units with flammable materials, installing cameras in main areas without notifying tenants and using the recordings in eviction proceedings, evictions under false pretences, illegal short-term rentals and forcing tenants to share units with strangers.

“If we had a new landlord licensing set of conditions... we will have more tools at our disposal to better enforce and levy fines,” he said.

Fry said city inspectors must provide landlords with 24 hours’ notice before arriving to do an inspection.

But he said tenants have told him that illegally installed room partitions are temporarily removed before inspectors arrive and reinstalled after they leave.

Any fines issued to landlords and received by the city could be an additional income stream to fund greater enforcement of existing rental rules, Fry said.

Such a business licence already exists in New Westminster, he added, and could include enforcement tools up to and including cancelling a landlord’s business licence.

The Vancouver Tenants Union supports the motion asking city staff to explore existing and new tools for holding offending landlords to account.

But union volunteer Mariah Javadi said revoking a landlord’s business licence means their tenants would be evicted, a fear city staff confirmed during Wednesday’s meeting.

“Obviously we wouldn’t be in support of something that would kick tenants out of their homes as a way to punish a landlord,” Javadi said, adding the New Westminster Tenants Union says no landlord in their city has lost a business licence yet.

Fry did not name any of the offending corporate landlords in his motion.

The news links included in his motion included articles on Plan A Real Estate, a company The Tyee has reported on, and Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, or CAPREIT, which owns and operates over 41,000 rental units across the country.

Fry also shared a listing with The Tyee for a room that appeared to have been created by adding new dividers to an existing apartment. The listing said the room was separated from the rest of the apartment by “a smart bookcase system.” It rents for $305 per week and is a West End building called Ocean Park Place.

While the listing does not include the landlord’s name, a photo of the front entrance shows a rug printed with “CAPREIT.”

The Tyee contacted CAPREIT to confirm whether the listing was one of theirs, and for a response to the motion. In an email response, it did not directly address the listing.

“All units in all communities, whether leased through CAPREIT or a co-living housing provider, are held to the same safety and compliance requirements and must comply with applicable safety regulations, including the National Building Code of Canada and the City of Vancouver's fire prevention bylaws,” an unnamed CAPREIT representative wrote via email, adding it passed a September 2024 city inspection.

While the company representative did not specify which building the inspection was for, The Tyee’s request for comment included the link to the Ocean Park Place listing.

“Any housing provider that leases with CAPREIT is required to comply with all applicable municipal bylaws, including obtaining permits for any in-suite work where required. As such, these units do not fall under the City of Vancouver’s short-term rental regulations.”

Plan A Real Estate told The Tyee via email it was aware of Fry’s motion including news coverage of its buildings.

“We do not agree with the characterization of those matters and do not comment on specific tenancies or disputes in the media. Where issues arise, they are addressed through the appropriate legal and regulatory processes,” reads the email from an unnamed company representative.

“Plan A manages a large portfolio of rental housing in Vancouver and takes its obligations under the Residential Tenancy Act, privacy legislation, and municipal bylaws seriously. We support clear, fair, and consistently applied regulatory frameworks that improve housing standards while ensuring due process for housing providers.”

Ten speakers called in to the standing committee meeting to support the motion, including Vancouver Park Board commissioner Tom Digby, tenant lawyer Stephanie Smith and two people who said they live in West End rental buildings with illegally partitioned units rented on a weekly basis.

“There could be as many as three or four short-term tenants in a unit that used to be a one-bedroom. I have not seen any licences or permits issued by the city to allow for this,” said a caller identified only as Meg, who has lived in an existing West End Vancouver rental building for 10 years.

“I have seen particleboard partitions installed right beside stoves in some cases, which is very concerning and a huge fire hazard.”

In addition to the fire risk, an Ocean Park Place tenant told council that overall conditions in her building have “deteriorated rapidly” since landlord CAPREIT allegedly began offering short-term rentals in 2024.

“There’s been a drastic increase in theft and security failures. Cars are broken into, mailboxes are ripped open, and personal property is stolen from directly outside residents’ doors,” she said.

“The main entrance frequently does not lock, allowing anyone to enter. I have personally had strangers test my apartment door handle at 2 in the morning, and I have been verbally assaulted in the lobby for questioning someone attempting to enter the building without a fob.”

Rare bipartisan support for motion

ABC Couns. Lisa Dominato and Mike Klassen both asked deputy city manager Sandra Singh whether the new business licence requirements would overstep the city’s authority or double up on existing municipal bylaws and provincial legislation. Singh said she would have to report back with answers.

Fellow ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung, however, noted that the city’s existing tools, like the Standards of Maintenance Bylaw, don’t seem to be working as there is a long delay between inspections and taking action against offending landlords.

“There does seem to be a bit of a failure on the part of the city to not be more aggressive, if I can use that term, in terms of enforcement,” she said.

Singh disagreed with Kirby-Yung’s characterization but said she would have to brainstorm with her team on making their work more transparent.

“I would suggest that we are actively enforcing on bad actors and landlords that are not fulfilling their obligations,” she said.

The city has the power under the Standards of Maintenance Bylaw to make repairs or changes to buildings and bill the landlords, said Javadi of the Vancouver Tenants Union, if they refuse to comply.

She isn’t aware of the city taking action like that, however, since it shut down and then expropriated the Balmoral and Regent single-room occupancy hotels between 2017 and 2020.

“Sometimes it can even be hard to get an inspector to show up in the first place,” Javadi said, adding the union supports removing the 24-hour inspection notice for landlords, provided tenants are given adequate notice that inspectors will be in their units.

“Why can’t we just use the powers that we have?”

Prior to Wednesday’s meeting, Fry told The Tyee his motion arrives in time for the municipal election year when voters will decide whether they want to give their vote to ABC Vancouver, which voted to close the municipality’s Renter Office in 2023. ABC councillors, who hold a majority on council, also defeated a motion from OneCity Coun. Lucy Maloney to restore the office last June.

But this time ABC Vancouver Couns. Lisa Dominato, Mike Klassen, Peter Meiszner, Lenny Zhou and Sarah Kirby-Yung joined Fry, Maloney and COPE Coun. Sean Orr in voting unanimously to pass Fry’s motion.

Javadi said passing the motion is a good first step. But the tenants union wants city staff to also explore “crucial” retaliation protections for tenants who report their landlords.

“Right now, we see landlords retaliate against their tenants for making complaints,” she said.