Nova Scotia’s New Democratic Party is once again calling on Houston’s Progressive Conservative government to create a tenancy enforcement unit to ensure both tenants and landlords are following the rules.
In their statement released on July 17, the NSNDP claims Houston’s government has been “sitting on a consultant’s report” recommending the creation of such a unit, which would instill repercussions for violations of the Residential Tenancies Act.
“So many Nova Scotians are scared to report unsafe living conditions or illegal rent hikes because they’re afraid of losing their home,” said NSNDP leader Claudia Chender in the release. “We need a residential tenancies enforcement unit to ensure that repeat offenders face consequences if they continually break the Residential Tenancies Act.”
Although Chender introduced legislation to create a residential tenancies enforcement unit last fall, and the provincial government has received a consultant’s report on the matter, nothing has been done about enforcing the Residential Tenancies Act.
Legal aid ‘overwhelmed’ with requests
Sydnee Blum, a community legal worker with the Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, says their requests to deal with tenancy issues have skyrocketed over the last four years.
“We’re constantly overwhelmed by [residential tenancy] inquiries,” said Blum in an interview with The Coast, adding that their number of calls regarding tenancies has gone from hundreds a year to somewhere in the thousands.
This need has led to stricter criteria for legal aid to take on a case and has led to them having to refer people to other services to deal with their tenancy issues. In Blum’s opinion, this is a direct result of the provincial government’s unwillingness to enforce the Residential Tenancies Act.
“One thing we see that’s incredibly frustrating is the same landlords doing the same things to different tenants year over year,” said Blum, whether it be ignoring repairs, charging illegal application fees, or kicking tenants out by way of renovictions or through fixed-term leases.
“There’s no real reason for a landlord to stop doing something illegal, because even if a tenant takes it to the tenancy board, there’s no fines, there’s no real enforcement. It’s very difficult to enforce an order against something like harassment, or to compel a landlord to do repairs because it’s easy to find a bunch of excuses.”
For Blum, enforcement would have to, at the bare minimum, include fines for repeated violations of the Residential Tenancies Act to help deter landlords from rule-breaking. She would also like to see methods of resolving issues without having to go to tenancy court.
Other provinces are doing it
Blum’s ideas aren’t unfounded—in fact, it’s what many Canadian provinces already have in place.
Take British Columbia, for example. They have a financial penalty system for when their enforcement unit is unable to “achieve compliance.”
This depends on several factors: the seriousness of the violation, how many times it has happened, any efforts to correct the violation, and any financial benefits gained from the violation.
While both landlords and tenants have an opportunity to respond before a decision is made, the system deters either party from violating the act through the threat of a financial penalty.
Deterrence from breaking the rules is the number-one reason to enact fines, but it would also grant relief to residential tenancy officers and the legal aid system.
“It would take a lot of stress off residential tenancy officers in this entire process to be able to have something where tenants and landlords aren’t having to file for a hearing every time repairs need to be done,” said Blum.
But at the moment, Blum has no faith in the Houston government carrying out any solutions.
“I think it’s more of the same from the government,” she said. “I mean, quite frankly, this is a government that hasn’t indicated that it cares about tenants and [is] stalling out on getting this recommended.
“I can’t stress it enough—their consultants recommended they do this, so the fact that they’re stalling out on this is just another way that I feel like they are indicating they don’t really care about the housing crisis.”
When Service Nova Scotia Minister Colton LeBlanc was asked to comment on the lack of penalties, a communications advisor provided this response.
“We recognize there are a lot of tenants facing tough situations in today’s rental market,” reads the response. “These challenges are a symptom of an extremely low vacancy rate and the lack of housing options available to Nova Scotians, and it’s a challenge we’re seeing across the country.”
Referring to their plan to build new public housing units, the statement goes on to acknowledge that there is a “tight housing market”, and that the priority of the provincial government is to increase the supply of housing.
“While an enforcement unit may be helpful in some respects, we have concerns it would not address some of the key issues both sides have identified (for example, enforcing a tenant who has been evicted to move out, or ensuring landlords make repairs). However, we continue to explore options.”
The statement ends with a referral to the Residential Tenancies Program for dispute resolution, adding they deal with “over 4,000 hearings each year.”