HELP FOR TENANTS ON THE WAY
Rent freeze, eviction ban announced
Renters in Alberta are getting some relief.
On Friday afternoon, just days before most residential rent is due on April 1, Premier Jason Kenney announced a series of measures designed to help tenants who may struggle to pay their bills.
The measures are intended to provide increased security for Albertans who have lost their jobs or have seen their hours reduced because of the COVID -19 pandemic.
The new legislation guarantees that tenants cannot be evicted for non-payment of rent and/or utilities before May 1. It also freezes rents while Alberta remains in a state of public health emergency, gets rid of late fees for rent payments for the next three months and directs landlords to negotiate payment plans with tenants who struggle to pay rent.
“The actions we are announcing today are designed to address the needs of renters, but also ensure landlords don’t go out of business,” Kenney said. “This is a balanced but strong package to help renters.”
The announcement came after a week in which British Columbia announced similar wide-reaching rules to help protect renters. Kenney had previously urged tenants and landlords to find solutions to issues where tenants were unable to pay. Landlords will still be able to file applications and receive orders of possession if the reason for eviction is not related to rent or utility payments.
The announcement was met with support by a group representing Calgary landlords.
“Well, we actually had the opportunity to discuss a number of these issues with the government over the last couple of days, so we knew it was coming this afternoon in terms of what the government is proposing,” said Gerry Baxter, the executive director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association. “As an industry, I think we fully support the government taking these measures at this time.
“We’re really pleased because we all want to work together to get through this pandemic.”
Throughout the week, there had been calls from opposition leader Rachel Notley and renters’ groups in Calgary for more legislative protection for renters as the April 1 deadline loomed.
Many of the new rules the province is putting in place were already being encouraged by the landlords’ association, which was encouraging its members to work with tenants to find solutions to issues paying rent while companies like Boardwalk had already committed to not raising rents for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.
On Thursday, though, one group representing renters had explained that relying on goodwill from landlords wasn’t enough.
Donna Clarke, of the Renters Action Movement — Calgary, said the measures announced Friday were a good first step but more was needed, especially some sort of rent forgiveness.
“I think it’s a good start. Better late than never,” Clarke said. “No evictions is really important and the rent freeze is awesome, really important. I just think it’s a little bit short-sighted, but will do for now. We’ll see how long this goes on, and if people have to make up this rent payment somehow, that means they’ll be paying a lot more in future months and I don’t know how they’re going to do that.
“I don’t know how our economy is going to bounce back and all of a sudden everyone will be able to pay two months’ rent in one month.”
Better late than never. No evictions is really important and the rent freeze is awesome, really important.