QUEEN'S PARK - Ryan got hit with a 17% rent increase because he lives in a post-2018 building, and may be forced to move out if he can no longer afford rent. All units should have rent control, not just those built before November 2018.
Unethical landlords can use unlimited rent increases to force out tenants they may not want – a clear violation of Human Rights Code. Ford government's lifting of rent control on new builds allows landlords to use unaffordable rent increases to evict tenants.
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Ms. Peggy Sattler: My question is to the Premier. Ryan and his family live in a two-bedroom apartment in London West that was built in 2021. He pays $2,015 a month and just received notice of a $350 rent increase, which is more than 17% and seven times the provincial rent increase guideline. That’s an additional $4,200 a year that Ryan will somehow have to find, at a time when groceries, utilities, insurance and other bills just keep rising. If he can’t make it work, Ryan will have no choice but to move out, and this could keep happening year after year.
Speaker, will the Premier act now to prohibit the exorbitant rent increases that tenants like Ryan face annually in buildings that were constructed since 2018?
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Ms. Peggy Sattler: Another London West constituent is a private sponsor for a refugee family from Syria. He had less than two months’ notice to find rental accommodation for the sponsored family. With very few options, he signed a lease on a post-2018 apartment and later learned that the landlord is not bound by the provincial rent increase guideline, which was nowhere mentioned in the lease agreement. He is concerned that unethical landlords could use rent increases to force out tenants they may not want, like a refugee family, an action that would clearly be prohibited by the Ontario Human Rights Code.
Can the Premier explain why he is allowing landlords to use unaffordable rent increases as a way to effectively evict tenants from their housing?