Starting July 18th, landlords across BC will be required to use the Landlord Use Web Portal to generate Notices to End Tenancy for personal occupancy or caretaker use. The intention behind the Portal is to limit “bad faith” evictions, as evictions under “false pretenses” continue to occur, with some landlords evicting people to raise the rent for the next tenant(s). 

These changes are meant to support the rights of both landlords and tenants, while creating a standardized process to end tenancies for personal use. Landlords will be required to include information about the people moving into the home, and will be informed of the “significant” penalties they could face if they are found to be evicting a tenant in bad faith. As of July 18th,  landlords who evict in bad faith could be ordered to pay the displaced tenant’s rent for 12 months. 

In addition, the province will be increasing the amount of notice a tenant must receive, and the amount of time they have to dispute an eviction. If a landlord is evicting their tenant for personal or caretaker use, they will have to give four months notice instead of the current two months, and the person moving into the home must do so in a minimum of 12 months. Tenants will have 30 days to dispute the end of a tenancy, instead of the current 15 days. 

The Residential Tenancy Branch will be able to use the portal to do post-eviction compliance audits and provide data about the frequency of these types of evictions.