By Jackie Wong
The West Ender
After more than a year of tenant-landlord conflict, residents of the West End’s Seafield apartment building were relieved last week to learn that the rent increases applied for by their landlords were overturned by the B.C. Supreme Court.
The January 12 judgement by Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo called the landlords’ application [...]
Darcy Wintonyk
CTVBC.ca
Gordon Nelson Investments has been ordered to refund tenants after a B.C. Supreme Court judge overturned an almost 40 per cent rent increase.
Justice Linda Loo found that a decision by the Residential Tenancy Office (RTO) to allow landlords Gordon Nelson Investments to raise rents at Seafield Apartments in April 2009 by 38 per cent [...]
Sandra Thomas
Vancouver Courier
The Supreme Court of B.C. overturned Tuesday a controversial ruling by the Residential Tenancy Branch last year that would have allowed a West End landlord to increase rents by up to 38 per cent. Madam Justice Linda Loo call the initial ruling “patently unreasonable” and also ordered Gordon Nelson Investments to return all [...]
By Keith Fraser
The Province
Landlord ordered to refund paid increases; new hearing to be set
A judge has overturned a decision that allowed a landlord to raise rents in a Vancouver West End apartment building by up to 38 per cent.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo called the April 2009 ruling by the Residential Tenancy Branch to [...]
JEFF HODSON
METRO VANCOUVER
A landlord has been ordered to refund tenants of a West End apartment after a B.C. Supreme Court judge overturned an almost 40 per cent rent increase.
Madam Justice Linda Loo set aside an April 2009 decision by a residential tenancy officer (RTO) that had increased rents at the Seafield Apartments by as much [...]
By Nafeesa Karim
CKNW
Residents of a West End apartment building are chalking up a victory thanks to the B-C Supreme Court.
Residents of the Seafield building on Pendrell Street were fighting against rent increases of up to 40 percent.
They took their protests to the Residential Tenancy Office, which allowed the increases.
Unhappy with that decision, they appealed to [...]
By Matthew Burrows
Georgia Straight
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has overturned rent increases of up to 38 percent for tenants at the 14-unit Seafield Apartments in Vancouver.
In her judgment, Justice Linda Loo also ordered Gordon Nelson Investments, which owns the heritage building at 1436 Pendrell Street in the West End, to return the additional rent collected [...]
Shauna Lewis
Xtra West
HOUSING / RTO decision awarding 38 percent rent increase ‘patently unreasonable’ : Justice Loo
A year-long battle with their landlords has paid off for the tenants of one West End residential complex after the BC Supreme Court ruled Jan 13 to overturn a 38 percent rent increase imposed on tenants last spring.
The court also [...]
By Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER – A judge has overturned rent increases of up to 38 per cent for tenants of a West End building, finding the increase was “patently unreasonable.”
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Linda Loo ordered Gordon Nelson Investments, which owns the Seafield building at 1436 Pendrell Street, to return the additional rent collected since [...]
thinkcity.ca
In the wake of the provincial election results and an April ruling that granted a landlord’s request for excessive rent increases,renters in British Columbia are more at risk than ever before say tenants’ rights activists.
“Extreme rent increases or the threat of losing your home due to renovations that are really market-driven evictions in disguise are [...]
By Jackie Wong
The West Ender
It’s not easy these days to raise a family in Vancouver on a modest income, but living in affordable rental housing should help to make the financial burden a little lighter. That’s why Arwen Brenneman and her husband, John, applied to live in the West End’s Mole Hill housing complex when [...]
CTV
Incumbent NDP candidate Spencer Herbert spoke to evicted tenants in Vancouver’s West End Monday, re-stating his party’s promise to end the series of “renovictions” in the province.
Herbert held the press conference on the steps of the Berkeley apartment building on Bute St., after all of the building’s remaining tenants were served eviction notices over the [...]
By Jackie Wong
The Tyee
NDP and Green Party campaign signs dominated the entranceway to the Vancouver-West End all-candidates debate at the Coast Plaza Hotel yesterday afternoon, reflecting strong audience support for incumbent NDP MLA Spencer Herbert and returning Green Party candidate Drina Read, who both ran in the fall 2008 by-election in the former Vancouver-Burrard riding.
Herbert [...]
By Doug Ward
Vancouver Sun
The NDP would amend the Residential Tenancy Act to prevent landlords from using minor renovations as an excuse to sharply raise rents, party leader Carole James pledged Sunday in Vancouver.
James told a crowd of about 100 West End residents that an NDP government would close a loophole that allows landlords to evict [...]
By: Kristen Thompson
Metro Vancouver
Renters at the Berkeley Apartments on Bute Street yesterday joined the fight to amend the Residential Tenancy Act and protect Vancouverites from what they call unjust evictions.
West Enders, along with local NDP MLAs and B.C. NDP Leader Carole James, gathered outside the three-storey building where tenants recently received letters saying eviction notices [...]
By Jackie Wong
The Tyee
An eight-month tenant-landlord battle in Vancouver’s West End came to a head this week following the public release of an April 2 decision from the Residential Tenancy Office that allows the new landlords of the Seafield apartments to issue 38 per cent rent increases to nine of the 14 units in the [...]
WENDY STUECK
Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — A Residential Tenancy Branch decision has cleared the way for rent increases of up to 38 per cent, or about $500 a month, for a majority of units in the Seafield Apartments, a heritage West End building whose tenants had banded together to fight the increases.
Residents of the building, who [...]
By Adam Stirling
C-FAX 1070
A group calling itself “renters fight back” says the Campbell Government is making it easy for landlords to charge outlandish rent increases to their tenants.
Stephen Hammond is with renters fight back.
Hey says a recent ruling at “Seafield Apartments” in Vancouver’s West End shows that rent control is effectively dead in B.C.
“Most of [...]
Tenants of a West End apartment building are facing as much as 40 per cent rent increases, or $471 a month, after a ruling by the Residential Tenancy Office allowed their landlord to raise rents to that of comparable suites.
Advocates say renters all over B.C. should be wary of the decision at Seafield Apartments, because [...]
KELSEA BLOXAM
METRO VANCOUVER
Residents at Seafield Apartments in Vancouver’s West End are facing a 38 per cent rent increase following a decision by the Residential Tenancy Office (RTO) Thursday.
Many residents are upset since the increase will make their rent unaffordable, according to New Democrat MLA Spencer Herbert.
The increase will affect nine units at Seafield, with rents [...]
By John Colebourn
The Province
Win by West End landlord sparks concerns
A decision by the Residential Tenancy Branch allowing rent hikes of 40 per cent in a West End Vancouver apartment is like Christmas for landlords, a tenants’ advocate said Thursday.
“It’s Christmas everyday for landlords now,” said Stephen Hammond, an organizer with RentersFightBack.com.
“It’s just a matter of [...]
By Darah Hansen
Vancouver Sun
Renter advocates say tenants across British Columbia should brace themselves for “staggering” rent hikes in the wake of a decision giving a Vancouver corporate landlord the right to bump up rents in an apartment building by almost 40 per cent.
“Provincewide rent control is effectively dead as we know it,” said Spencer Herbert, [...]
By Katharine Sawchuk and Dave White
NEWS 1130
Tenants in Seafield Apartments in Vancouver’s West End have been handed a 38 per cent rent increase. This is due to a regulation in the Residential Tenancy Act which lets landlords increase the rent if they can prove it’s significantly below market value.
Christine Ackerman with Renters at Risk says [...]
CBC News
The Residential Tenancy Branch has handed down a split decision in a dispute between a group of tenants in the west end of Vancouver and their landlord.
The owners of the Seafield Apartments had applied to raise the rents in the building by as much as 73 per cent, well above the four per cent [...]
By Sandra Thomas
The Courier
West End NDP candidate Spencer Herbert says a decision by the Residential Tenancy Office to allow an almost 40 per cent rent increase at the Seafield Apartments in the West End signals the end of rent control.
“Rent control is effectively dead in this province,” said Herbert, who represented the former Vancouver-Burrard riding [...]
By Matthew Burrows
Georgia Straight
Vancouver city council today (April 9) relaxed a bylaw to make it easier for landlords and homeowners to rent dwellings during the 2010 Olympics.
In the city services and budgets committee meeting, councillors also called on the province government to amend the Residential Tenancy Act to prohibit evictions between June 1, 2009 and [...]
By Shauna Lewis
X-Tra West
“They’re basically destroying community if they continue to do this,” says longtime tenant Andrew Simmons, pointing to the companies behind many of the eviction notices.
“If companies like Hollyburn Properties and Gordon Nelson Investments continue to purchase more and more buildings then they are forcing out those people that are on the margins [...]
By Jackie Wong
the West Ender
Vancouver apartment dwellers may have come to the conclusion that fighting an eviction at the region’s Residential Tenancy Office (RTO) is more or less a rite of passage for renters nowadays, given the increasing number of tenancy disputes across the city. Many of them have been attributed to low vacancy rates, [...]
Sandra Thomas
Vancouver Courier
Supporters and media surrounded a jubilant crowd of tenants from the Emerald Terrace apartment building in the West End Monday morning as they celebrated a decision allowing them to keep their cats.
“Yay for cat people,” one of the supporters yelled as several of the tenants, including 81-year-old Mary Milligan, addressed the crowd.
The tenants [...]
By Kristen Thompson
METRO VANCOUVER
Mary Milligan no longer has to choose between her beloved cat, Niko, and her home after the B.C. Tenancy Board ruled her landlord can’t evict her for having a pet.
The west-end resident, along with a half dozen neighbours at Emerald Terrace apartment, said they were told by Hollyburn Properties in December [...]
