The landlord had told them he wanted to raise the rent to $3,500 and when they complained he decided to raise it to $9,500.
“We know that our building is not rent controlled and this was something we were always worried about happening and there is no way we can afford $9,500 per month," Yumna Farooq said.
There is a similar rule in Ontario, but it doesn’t apply to buildings built after 2018.
This exemption was put in place as an incentive for more rental units to be put on the market (or to enrich developers and landholders, depending on your political stance).
It’s frustrating that that’s a fixed date, instead it should be a floating date of 5 or so years.
The fixed date creates a weird scenario where the controlled supply is limited but the uncontrolled supply isn’t, which allows gross pricing disparities to arise and allows old-building owners and new to abuse their tenants (for old: you can’t afford to leave, for new: good luck getting a cheaper place, they’re all full).
A floating rent-control date balances things: developers only get to be greedy for so long, the supply of controlled housing is increases so pricing is more even, and landlords will want good relationships with tenants when they know they’re going to get “stuck” with them in a rent-controlled scenario.
… is still a bad idea. Let’s not focus on what kind of bat we’re beaten with; let’s just get Ontario back on track.
I’m not sure that works. The idea was that if rent control was lifted, there would be incentive to build new units. Trouble is, the building didn’t happen as expected. New housing starts even declined after the change came into effect. Balance is not going to give more incentive to build.
Since it didn’t work, we may as well go back to a proper rent control system. A proper one, not the completely ridiculous one that sees young, struggling families subsidizing rich retires that we currently have on those <2018 properties.
Any date is a bad idea
There is no limit to yearly increases in the real world. You get a phone call from your landlord telling you that they want to sell/renovate the unit, you get the hint and tell them that you will accept a rent increase, then magically they no longer want to sell/renovate. Happened to me with an otherwise “good” landlord.
In the Netherlands they can sell, but the renting agreement stays in place, so you can just stay there. If they want renovate they can offer to buy of your contract or they have to find you another apartment with equal facilities and for the same price range. A lot of these excesses can be covered by good legislation.
Renter protection is very strong in the Netherlands, probably one of the strongest in the world.
Used to be that squatter rights were also very strong but I believe that has reduced now.
It always feels like the countries in that region go out of their way to put every roadblock they can in front of pathetic little schemer pricks who only want to rob everyone of every penny. Here in the US, the politicians go out of their way to make sure there’s every possible loophole for corruption and morally bankrupt pieces of shit to abuse.
So we’re fucked, great.