‘I will fight to the end’: This tenant is challenging a rent spike, urges others to follow

Chris Thompson is prepared to conflict to nan extremity to title what he says is simply a rental value summation pinch small announcement – and he’s encouraging others crossed New Brunswick to do nan same.

“If I person a tribunal order, I’ll leave. But I will conflict to nan end,” he said.

“We request to attraction astir our organization and conflict for each other.”

Thompson had conscionable moved successful pinch his girlfriend, whose full-year fixed-term ends Aug. 31, erstwhile he says they received a matter from nan landlady of nan Fredericton duplex saying they’d person to fork complete much money and commencement paying utilities travel September — aliases leave.

Rent would spell from $1,395 to $1,495 but they’d besides person to commencement paying utilities, Thompson said. Because of nan summation of utilities, he believes nan full summation successful monthly payments is supra nan user value index, which would entitle them to use to person nan accrued costs dispersed out. Most importantly, however, is that an summation successful rent requires six months’ notice.

Thompson alleges that nan landlady based on that because it’s a fixed-term lease, they person to return her connection aliases time off it. Global News has attempted to interaction nan landlady but had not received a consequence by publication time. Even successful a non-fixed-term lease, however, tenants tin only beryllium pushed retired in circumstantial circumstances.

A provincial spokesperson said fixed-term leases are “covered nether nan Residential Tenancies Act and are taxable to each nan aforesaid tenancy protections arsenic non-fixed word leases.”

“The main quality successful nan tenancy is that nan tenant and landlord are locked successful until nan extremity of nan tenancy, arsenic indicated connected nan lease. There is nary announcement required to terminate nan tenancy astatine nan end, because nan extremity day is agreed upon erstwhile signing nan lease.”

Under nan Residential Tenancies Act, past updated successful 2023, Section 11 says that moreover successful a fixed-term lease, nan landlord “shall not summation nan rent” unless announcement is fixed “which is not little than nan announcement play prescribed by regulation,” nan announcement of summation is successful a abstracted document, and nan summation is “reasonable successful narration to that charged for comparable units successful nan aforesaid geographical area.”

Thompson acknowledged that he’s successful a privileged position: he and his woman person been paying a adjacent value for nan unit, they some person dependable jobs, they person nary children to support and he has contacts he tin scope retired to for support. He worries that others successful little fortunate circumstances could get taken advantage of.

“With things getting truthful costly and each nan bully things I conscionable talked about, it’s not that I’m hardly scraping by, but I can’t prevention up money for illustration I utilized to. No 1 can,” he said.

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“And truthful if I person each these advantages, there’s group who are signing nan lease agreements retired of fearfulness that they’ll beryllium thrown out, guaranteed. They request group to correspond them.”

Thompson says he and his woman put successful an charismatic title connected Friday aft he claims a telephone telephone pinch nan landlady proved fruitless nan evening prior.

Nichola Taylor, nan provincial co-ordinator astatine ACORN NB, says issues surrounding fixed-term leases successful New Brunswick are uncommon because they’re not very widespread. However, she said her colleagues successful Nova Scotia person suggested that landlords are utilizing word leases to “intimidate tenants either to enactment and person higher rent increases aliases to usage it astatine their disposal to get free of tenants.”

“Any tenant successful that position is going to beryllium fearful because, arsenic you know, affordable apartments are almost non-existent now passim nan province.… It shows nan monolithic imbalance of powerfulness betwixt landlord and tenant, that nan landlord has nan expertise to usage these loopholes to their convenience.”

Taylor believes fixed-term leases, which she says were meant for short-term rentals specified arsenic students, should beryllium scrapped altogether.

“If you’re talking astir personification who wants to unrecorded location for a sizeable magnitude of time, it’s for illustration having them connected that cliff separator of ‘You know, I tin return that distant from you whenever you want.’ And erstwhile nan rental marketplace is arsenic bad arsenic it is, and there’s hardly immoderate apartments retired location that’s affordable, this has a very large effect connected group who are connected debased to mean incomes because their choices are very scarce.”

Thompson believes nan connection successful nan Residential Tenancies Act is “a mess,” which is “causing immoderate vagaries astir it.” Still, he praised nan changes made past twelvemonth to Section 11 of nan act, which he says he will beryllium utilizing to make his case.