Seafield Apartments

Seafielders have begun the process for Judicial Review of the Residential Tenancy Branch’s April 2 decision to award Gordon Nelson Investments a 38% rent increase.  We have done this for a number of reasons.

From the RTB website:

“4.1.7 What is the process for judicial review of a Dispute Resolution Officer’s decision?

No government official or Residential Tenancy Branch staffperson has the ability to change, vary, alter or interfere with a dispute resolution officer’s decision. Only a Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia can review a dispute resolution officer’s decision based on an error in law, bias, or procedural fairness.”

We are pursuing our legal right for a judicial review in accordance with the reasons stated in the RTB rules above.

Why now?

Timing is a critical factor, between availability of counsel for both sides, court availability, and possible delays in the court system due to the Olympics.

Seafielders also can’t afford to wait.  The longer the time between the RTB decision and the judicial review, the longer Seafielders are paying phased-in installments of the 38% rent increase.  For the sake of our community, we must move forward.

Seafielders extended the courtesy of advising Gordon Nelson Investments of our need to file for JR before we instructed our counsel to proceed, and emphasized that we still all hope for a positive outcome to the ongoing negotiations for the purchase of the Seafield, 1436 Pendrell Street.

Many have asked us over the past two months what the status is of our hearings and of matters at the building. We Seafielders apologize for our silence.

We are currently in negotiations with Gordon Nelson Investments to form a non-profit co-op at the Seafield.

The past 10 months has been difficult for both parties, and Gordon Nelson has kindly offered the possibility of selling us the building so that we can form a co-op. We are confident that both Gordon Nelson and all of us here at the Seafield will reach a solution that will make everyone happy in the very near future, and are proud of both ourselves and our landlords for making such a bold and creative move.

We are happy that both sides are exercising good faith at making this deal happen, and are anticipating good results.

We will be releasing more information about this as soon as we can.

Thanks for your patience and support,

The Seafielders

There’s more bad news for West End renters as another group of tenants are battling geographic rent increases.

The “low-end of market” residents of the Mole Hill Community Housing Society  were recently served with notice of extraordinary rent increase through the  RTO.

The society plans to increase rents over two years, with requested increases of up to 28% in the first year and 20% in the second.

If successful, these rent increases will un-house many long term residents. Mole Hill sets a cap on the household income of perspective applicants, a cap that has jumped in recent years – and so those who have lived on the block for any longer than 3 years are unlikely to be able to stay in the West End if evicted by higher costs.

Seafielders found a website made by one of the residents. She discusses the details of the Mole Hill rent increases.

Residents of The Berkeley Stand with Spencer Herbert and Sharon Isaak.

Residents at The Berkeley were told last summer by representatives of their landlord, Satnam Singh Gandham, that they would be evicted for renovations and that they should make their way out.

They’ve been living in fear of losing their homes ever since, with nearly half of residents of the building leaving out of their own accord just to relieve the pressure and the stress of a looming eviction notice.

The city approved the permits required for the renovations on April 30, and residents will be forced out of the building on August 1 under the renoviction clause of the Residential Tenancy Act – Section 49-6(b).

Today, a few of the remaining residents met with the media and Spencer Herbert outside of the building to discuss their renoviction. In particular, Dominic Schaefer spoke, as well as Brian Garlicke.

Garlicke, who is HIV positive, spoke about the impact of being renovicted on his life.

He relies on services and support in the neighbourhood to help him deal with HIV and, because he can’t afford higher rent, he will be forced out of his home and away from the support he needs.

Satnam Singh Gandham is known in Vancouver for using renovictions to empty buildings and dramatically raise rents for new tenants. In fact, he has used this tactic at several of his other buildings in Kitsilano and the West End.

Other buildings owned by Gandham that have been recently renovicted include 2325 York Street and 2001 Beach Avenue.

Seafielders learned that an up to 38% rent increase has been granted to their landlords by the Residential Tenancy Office after the tenants’ evidence “wasn’t considered” by the Dispute Resolution Officer.

The rent increase will affect nine units out of 14 at the Seafield. Two bedroom units are the most affected, with rents soaring up to $1833 next year. Two one-bedroom units are also affected by the increase.

The tenants who will see the highest rent increase of 38% are Roland McFall, 82, and his sister, Mary McFall, 93, despite having paid regular rent increases for the length of their tenancy (about 48 years).

Residents are not happy with the decision and are seeking legal advice and considering a petition for a judicial review of the decision.

Seafielders can’t comment further about the decision, but ask the media to review it, found in PDF format below.

Background:
The Residential Tenancy Act’s Guidelines, in the case for an above normal rent increase, say:

The Area Rent Increase allows landlords to apply for an increase over and above the annual allowable amount if they feel that the rents being paid are significantly below the rents payable for similar units.

“Similar units” means rental units of comparable size, age (of unit and building),
construction, interior and exterior ambiance (including view), and sense of community.

The “same geographic area” means the area located within a reasonable kilometer radius of the subject rental unit with similar physical and intrinsic characteristics.

The Seafield is a 1931-built, three storey, brick walk-up building. Apartments do not have amenities such as dishwashers, balconies, stainless steel appliances, views, granite counter tops, or en suite laundry etc. The building does not have a pool, sauna, rooftop patio, elevator or other such amenity.

For the March 11 hearing disputing Gordon Nelson Investments‘ application for the rent increase, Seafield tenants compiled:
• A scientific survey that showed rents paid by residents at the building were in line with rents paid at other similar buildings in the West End.
• A custom analysis conducted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation of their own Rental Market Survey, that shows Seafielders pay similar rents for their apartments as other renters in their neighbourhood.
• Photos and letters from other West End residents who live in nine other character buildings, showing that rents paid by Seafielders are similar to rents paid by others in similar (and in some cases, identical) apartments.

Gordon Nelson Investments provided more than 100 Craigslist ads of all types of apartments in the West End, most of which were renovated, in high-rise buildings, short term rentals and with amenities that the Seafield does not have (en-suite laundry, balconies, views, rooftop terraces, gyms, pools, secured parking etc.).

Image courtesy of Renters Fight Back, a campaign to get renters out to vote in the provincial election.

In 2004, the BC Liberals changed the residential tenancy act, allowing landlords to evict tenants for renovations.

On October 26, 2008, Seafielders (along with some folks at Renters at Risk) met with Provincial Housing Minister Rich Coleman to discuss the loopholes in the residential tenancy act, and to ask him to do something about it. At the time, Mr. Coleman insisted that the problem was really with a few landlords who were “bad apples”, and his solution was to talk to them about it instead of changing the law.

We disagree.

Landlords who choose to renovict may be bad apples. But, if they weren’t in the picture, they would be replaced by more bad apples. These landlords are using the loopholes as a business strategy, and hey — who can blame them.

If the law allows evicting for profit, why not?

The problem as we see it isn’t the bad apples, but the law that empowers them to disrupt lives and double rents. That law needs to be changed. How it gets changed, or by whom, isn’t important. All that is important is that the loopholes are closed.

The most common question we’re asked after people visit our website is “what can I do about it to help?” There are lots of ways to contribute: writing letters to your MLA, providing emotional support to your friends going through evictions and so on.

One group in Vancouver is taking things a bit farther with a new campaign called “Renters Fight Back”. The group’s mandate is to get renters out to vote in the upcoming May 12 provincial election, and to “evict Gordon Campbell” to get in a government that will change the laws in the RTA to protect renters.

rentersfightback.com was created by Christine Ackermann and Stephen Hammond, concerned citizens and renters who are passionate about tenants’ rights in BC. Since the Geogria Straight covered this new campaign in last week’s paper, we thought it would be of some interest to our readers as well.

Check it out to learn more about what Renters Fight Back has to say about the 2009 BC Provincial Election. You can also contact Christine and Stephen by email if you want more information.

This letter from Brian Broster and Ross Waring at the Seafield ran in the Courier to clarify a point in the article.

Re: “West End rental scene plagued by rent hikes,” March 6.

We at the Seafield are grateful to Ms. Thomas for her ongoing coverage of our predicament. However, we feel it is important to point out that at no time did we refer to our landlords, Messrs. Jason Gordon and Chris Nelson, as either “corrupt” or “unscrupulous.”

Even though the entire process and threat of losing our homes through mass eviction has, and continues to be, traumatic, we would emphasize that the tone of our disagreement has always remained civil.

Brian Broster and Ross Waring,

Vancouver

Seafield residents presented their case opposing landlord Gordon Nelson Investments’ application for a above normal rent increases at the Residential Tenancy Office yesterday.

After working long and hard over one month to prepare our counter argument, we are relieved that the process is over and are looking forward to taking a bit of a breather as we await the decision. The proceedings were held over a teleconference and lasted two and a half hours.

Of course, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of the people who helped us through this trying time in not only preparing and presenting our evidence at the RTO, but also lending emotional support leading up to, and during, the hearing.

Like many cases at the RTO, we didn’t receive a decision right away from our dispute resolution officer. This is normal and common procedure.

Seafielders will receive the verdict by mail in about 30 days time.

Residents received notice of an above normal rent increase from their landlords on January 14, 2009. If Gordon Nelson’s application for the increase is granted, residents will see an increase of as high as 73 percent in their rents.

Gordon Nelson are applying for the above normal rent increase using 23(1)(a) of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA). Under this section of the RTA, the landlord has the full burden of proof in showing that residents under the application are paying significantly less rent for their apartments than residents who live in geographically similar apartments.

Residents at the Seafield Apartments (1436 Pendrell Street, Vancouver) currently pay a fair market rent for apartments when compared to other units in pre-1940s buildings in the central West End. Both a custom analysis conducted by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation as well as a scientific random-sample survey of renters in the central area of the West End confirms this. In contrast, consider the rents applied for by the landlord, Gordon Nelson Investments Inc.*

Seafielders are fighting Gordon Nelson Investments’ proposed geographic area rent increase of up to 73% today at the Residential Tenancy Office. The case will be heard over the phone by a Dispute Resolution Officer at 1 p.m. this afternoon. The hearing is scheduled to last for one hour.

Residents worked night and day over the past month to put together evidence that shows that they are paying similar rents as others who live in “geographically similar” units, including conducting a survey of rents in our neighbourhood.

The Area Rent Increase allows landlords to apply for an increase over and above the annual allowable amount if they feel that the rents being paid are significantly below market value of similar units.

RTA Guidelines say that:
“Similar units” means rental units of comparable size, age (of unit and building),
construction, interior and exterior ambiance (including view), and sense of community.

The “same geographic area” means the area located within a reasonable kilometer
radius of the subject rental unit with similar physical and intrinsic characteristics.

The Seafield Apartments is a 1931 built, three storey, brick walk up building. Apartments do not have amenities such as dishwashers, balconies, stainless steel appliances, views, granite counter tops, or en suite laundry etc. The building does not have a pool, sauna, rooftop patio, elevator or other such amenity.

*Sources:
1)    Current Seafield Rents and landlord’s applied for rents, see GNI’s Application for Additional Rent Increase dated January 9, 2009.
2)    Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation custom analysis, commissioned by Ross Waring. Contact Ross Waring for details or for CMHC’s full analysis by email.
3)    West End Renters’ Survey is a scientific random-sample study of over 300 West End renters, conducted by the Seafield tenants, with 128 respondents renting in pre-1940s buildings in the central West End. Contact Ross Waring for details by email.