Thinking about renting out your property?

As a landlord, you may run into problems with your tenants.  Therefore, it’s important to know the BC laws around tenancy and eviction. 

The first kind of eviction you may be eligible to impose upon your tenant is a 10 day eviction.  You may provide your tenant with a notice of this kind if they do not pay rent on time, or in full. Upon receiving a 10 day eviction notice, your tenant has 5 days to pay.  If your tenant neglects to pay utility fees, you may impose a 10-day eviction notice, ONLY after giving them 30 days of written notice demanding payment. 

The next, and less urgent form of eviction notice is a 30 day notice.  You may provide your tenants with a notice of this kind for many reasons.  A few of the most common are as follows. 

• they are unreasonably disturbing you

• Repeatedly pay their rent late

• Seriously damage the property

• Have too many occupants - *I want to point out here that  if your tenancy agreement does NOT specify how people can live in the unit, you are entitled to impose an eviction notice if you feel as though your tenants have moved in an unreasonable number of roommates. 

If your tenant feels as though they have received a one month eviction notice unlawfully, they have 10 days to dispute the eviction.  

By the same token, if you feel as though your tenants are causing serious problems, you may ask the RTB for permission to evict individuals before the one-month notice is set to take effect - and you are NOT required to warn them.  If you decide to go down this route, you are required to provide your tenants with a notice of the hearing so they can prepare evidence for their defense. 

Moving along, you can provide your tenants with a two month eviction notice. According to sections 49 and 49.1 of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA), you may impose a two month eviction notice if you or a close family member wants to occupy the rental unit, the unit was sold to the purchaser, or your tenant no longer qualifies. Your tenant has 15 days to dispute this notice. 

Finally, it may be the case that you impose an eviction of four months. This may be done if you decide to demolish the unit, convert the property to strata lots, convert the residential property into cooperative housing, convert the unit for use by a caretaker, manager, or superintendent of the residential property, or convert the unit to non-residential use. Your tenant is entitled to 30 days if they would like to apply for a dispute resolution hearing.