Shared from acto.ca 2015 Rent Guideline is Twice the 2014 Increase; Guideline Doesn’t Protect Thousands of Ontario Tenants On June 20, Ontario’s new Minister of Housing, Ted McMeekin, announced that the annual rent increase guideline for 2015 would be 1.6 per cent – double the amount set for 2014. This reflects growing price inflation in Ontario’s economy as measured by the Consumer Price Index. More than 50,000 tenant households will continue to see even higher percentage rent increases because they are not protected by the annual guideline. They are vulnerable to exorbitant and unjustified rent increases, simply because they live in ‘newer’ buildings. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, tenants living in buildings built on or after November 1, 1991 are exempt from rent regulation. In addition, the law allows landlords to set rents at any level for new tenants moving into any vacant rental unit. The continuing low vacancy rate in most of the Province creates the opportunity for landlords to raise rents on these units far in excess of the guideline. This is why the average rent increase across the province was 2.7% for two-bedroom units according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Spring 2014 rental market survey. This pushed Ontario’s average rent over $1,000.00 for the first time in history. The average rent or all units surveyed in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, (where 45% of Ontario’s tenants live) is now $1,143.00. This reflects an increase over the Spring 2013 survey that is three times the 2014 rent guideline. Tenants must continue to demand that Ontario’s laws be changed so that: • rent regulation applies to all private rental buildings; and • landlords cannot charge new tenants higher rents than the rent they could have charged the previous tenant. You can email a message to Minister McMeekin at [email protected]
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 23:44:03 +0000
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