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Tenants fight back as landlords seeking own-use evictions rise 85% in Ontario |
CBC News Loaded
Canada
TENANTS FIGHT BACK AS LANDLORDS SEEKING OWN-USE EVICTIONS RISE 85% IN ONTARIO
In the midst of a national housing crisis, an increasing number of tenants are
caught in a battle with an increasing number of landlords who say they need to
repossess their rental properties for their own use.
MORE LANDLORDS NEED PROPERTIES BACK, OFTEN BECAUSE OF HIGHER INTEREST RATES,
ADVOCATE SAYS
Angela Hennessy · CBC News · Posted: Jul 29, 2024 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated:
July 29
INVESTIGATING A RISE IN ‘OWN-USE’ EVICTIONS
9 days ago
Duration 11:46
Own-use evictions are up 85 per cent in Ontario, pitting angry tenants against
landlords who say they need their properties back. CBC’s Ioanna Roumeliotis
investigates what’s behind the increase and talks to tenants who worry they
could soon be living on the streets.
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Chris Kostav and Shari Keyes may have targets on their backs.
In a hot Toronto real estate market, both tenants are paying well below market
rent for their units in a low-rise building in East York.
And now their landlord wants them out. According to their eviction notices, the
landlord plans to move family members into both apartments.
"I think the only reason he wants me to leave is so he can charge higher rent,"
said Kostav, who is retired after working as an electrician and has lived in the
studio unit for nearly 20 years.
The landlord filed N12 eviction applications with Ontario's Landlord and Tenant
Board for both tenants, otherwise known as an own-use eviction, saying he needs
to move his daughter into one unit and his parents into the other.
Neither Kostav or Keyes believe their landlord. They both obtained a lawyer and
pushed back at the Landlord and Tenant Board.
In an email to CBC, their landlord, Sofiene Bousselmi, denied the evictions are
in bad faith and said that he does need to move his family members in.
Chris Kostav, left, and Shari Keyes rent units in the same building in Toronto.
They both received eviction notices from their landlord, who says he wants to
move family members into the units. They are fighting back. (Ousama Farag/CBC)
In the midst of a national housing crisis, Kostav and Keyes have been caught in
a battle between an increasing number of landlords who say they need to
repossess their rental properties and an increasing number of tenants who are
refusing to leave without a fight.
For Kostav, the battle continues, with his next hearing at the Landlord and
Tenant Board expected in early August. For Keyes, the Ontario Landlord and
Tenant Board ruled earlier this month that the landlord had acted in bad faith
with his eviction application for her unit, allowing her to stay in her unit for
now.
For Keyes, 56, giving up her apartment would have meant her daughter and
granddaughter would have most likely had to leave Toronto permanently or
possibly end up homeless.
"The rents everywhere are so high we knew we couldn't afford anything else. We
had to fight because we've been worried about the possibility of homelessness
this entire time," said Keyes.
As rents continue to reach new highs across the country — up 22 per cent in two
years, with a one-bedroom apartment going for a national average of
$1,929, according to data from Rentals.ca — some Ontario tenants who have
received N12 eviction notices say there is nowhere else to go, and they are
going to do what they can to stay put.
TRACKING BAD-FAITH EVICTIONS
The increase in own-use evictions seems to be happening elsewhere in the
country.
The B.C. government just launched an online portal to help combat bad-faith
evictions by landlords saying they need their units.
The battle between Keyes and her landlord went on for nearly two years as a
result of delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board. She said it took a massive
toll on her, her daughter and granddaughter as they worried about the future
and lived amid boxes packed in anticipation of perhaps having to leave.
Rents across Canada have risen 22 per cent over the past two years, according to
data from Rentals.ca. Many housing experts say this is causing tenants to fight
much harder for their units when facing eviction. (CBC)
Kostav is paying $600 per month for his rent-controlled studio unit, but said he
believes the landlord wants to double or even triple the amount, based on the
rising rents in the neighbourhood.
"Where am I going to live? Maybe I'm going to live on the street or be homeless.
I can't afford with my pension to pay higher rent than this now. That is it,"
said Kostav, 66, who has also been living amid packed boxes for months in the
event he does have to leave.
WATCH | The impact of higher interest rates:
‘NOT YOUR FOREVER HOME’
9 days ago
Duration 1:08
Rose Marie, the vice-chair of a landlord advocacy group, addresses the rise of
own-use evictions and says it is largely due to higher interest rates.
According to Landlord and Tenant Board data, applications for own-use evictions
— which can be used when the landlord or a family member needs to move into the
unit — are up 85 per cent in Ontario since 2020, rising from 3,445 that year to
6,376 in 2023.
Board data also show that T5 applications — when a tenant wants to dispute the
own-use claim after they have left the unit — quadrupled from 2020 to 2023.
In 2020, 331 T5 applications were filed. In 2023, that number rose to 1,335. In
the first four months of 2024, there were 504 applications.
The Landlord and Tenant Board handed out more than twice the number of fines for
bad faith evictions in 2023 compared to 2022, with 23 fines in 2023, compared to
11 the previous year.
Experts say own-use evictions have historically been the easiest way for a
landlord to get a tenant out. In the past, landlords likely may not have even
had to file at the board — they could just tell the tenant a family member was
moving in.
That is changing.
"People are clinging to their homes with their fingernails like they are.
They're desperately clawing to stay in their apartment, even if that apartment
is terrible," said Karly Wilson, a housing lawyer at Don Valley Community Legal
Services in Toronto.
"I tell my tenants if they've been anywhere for more than five years, they have
a target on their back."
Keyes, left, and her daughter, Amanda Howell, say they can’t afford to move
anywhere else nearby because rentals in her neighbourhood have become too
expensive. (Ousama Farag/CBC)
In most provinces in Canada — including in Ontario where Keyes and Kostav live —
rent controls are only enforced when a tenant is living in the unit. Otherwise
there is vacancy decontrol, which means once a unit is vacant, the landlord can
charge whatever they want.
And in tight rental markets where demand far outstrips supply, there's a big
financial incentive to flip a unit back into the market and charge higher rents.
"Tenants will refuse to leave an apartment for years because they know they have
nowhere to go," said Wilson.
RISING MORTGAGE RATES
But some small landlords and landlord advocates say this isn't the full story
and that the issue is an increase in landlords actually needing their properties
back, often because of higher interest rates.
"If you have to pay $800 a month for your rental property, and then your
mortgage needs to be renewed for your principal residence and you have to pay
another $600 or $800 for that, you can't afford it," said Rose Marie, vice-chair
of Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario (SOLO), a landlord advocacy group.
"You can't just pass that monthly increase over to the tenant. So then who's
paying it?"
> I never hear a tenant advocate talk about the math.- Rose Marie
Marie said more landlords are choosing to sell their rentals because of rising
costs or move in family who can't afford the hot rental markets across the
country.
At a recent SOLO protest at Queen's Park in Toronto, several landlords protested
the delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board in dealing with tenants fighting
their N12 eviction notices.
Tenant lawyer Karly Wilson says the rise in tenants fighting back against
own-use evictions is occurring because there is increasingly nowhere for them to
go as rents have become too high for many people. (Ousama Farag/CBC)
"I am a single mom, I cannot afford this, I have to move back into my house and
I cannot," landlord Jessica Huang said through tears.
Her issue, she said, is as Marie laid it out: once mortgage rates went up, she
could no longer afford the rental property. Now, she needs to move in instead
and can't.
"I never hear a tenant advocate talk about the math. Never," Marie said.
Wilson, the tenant lawyer, also said that despite the rise in N12 applications,
there is no way of counting how many tenants who get an N12 notice actually put
up a fight. Most usually just move.
"It's an easy way to get somebody evicted, honestly. An N12 doesn't have a high
burden of proof. It just requires one person saying: 'I want to move into this
unit.' And unless you can prove that they're lying about that, which is hard,
you kind of have to go with it," she said.
"I think that creates the perfect storm we're in right now."
WATCH | Facing an own-use eviction:
SINGLE MOM TALKS ABOUT THE STRESS OF FACING EVICTION
9 days ago
Duration 1:11
Amanda Howell lives with her mother and daughter in a two-bedroom apartment in
Toronto, and is facing an N12 eviction.
'THE PRICES DON'T MAKE SENSE'
For Keyes and her daughter, this battle doesn't feel quite over.
"The stress and depression of us looking for other places to live and realizing
you can't afford anything — these prices don't make sense," Amanda Howell said.
"Even though we won we are still worried about what comes next."
The dismissal of the eviction application means they can stay and continue to
pay their current rate, but they say it would be nice to have the freedom to
leave if they could.
"It's heartbreaking, stressful and terrifying, all of this, I wouldn't want
anyone else to go through this," Keyes said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Angela Hennessy
Angela Hennessy is a journalist and producer at The National. Before landing at
CBC in 2015, Angela was a reporter for various Toronto news outlets. She
graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University with a degree in journalism and
also has a bachelor of arts and international relations from Western University.
With files from Ioanna Roumeliotis
CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|Report error
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