New Stats Give Insight Into Renovictions in Nova Scotia
HALIFAX–There are a lot of anecdotes swirling in Halifax about renovictions — the act of a landlord evicting tenants so they can do wholesale repairs and upgrades to an apartment. Quite often, tenants of an entire building are at risk of being kicked out.
But until recently, hard numbers on renovictions were hard to find, since the Nova Scotian Government doesn’t publish any. But the Investment Propoerty Owners Association of Nova Scotia, the association representing the province’s landlords, recently got its hand on some of those numbers.
According to the numbers, tenants have a good chance of fighting a renoviction inside the residential tenancy process.
Since March of 2022, when the temporary renoviction ban was lifted (and replaced with new criteria for landlords), more than 200 renoviction applications were made across the province. But only 31 were approved, while 74 were dismissed by a residential tenancy officer, 64 were withdrawn by the landlord, and 33 were settled through mediation.
As of July 16, there were still 25 active renoviction applications going through the process.
Kevin Russell, the director of IPOANS, released these numbers because he felt people had misconceptions about renovictions that were fueled by anecdotal stories in the media.
“It shows that the regulations that the government put in place in March 2022 are working,” said Russell. “And the problem, compared to the entire market, is not as big as what we’re hearing in the media…The sky isn’t falling.”
“The problem we’ve had with this debate, since we started talking about the housing crisis, is it’s driven by anecdotal evidence and people aren’t looking at the data, even the limited data we have.”
But Joanne Hussey, who has helped tenants fight renovictions on behalf of Dalhousie Legal Aid, sees the stats in a different light. She believes renovictions are still a serious issue, especially in this housing crisis. She also critiques the stats given to IPOANS for being incomplete.
Hussey notes that there are no stats provided for when tenants sign a form agreeing to leave their units voluntarily for renovations. She says if these were included in the stats, we would see a much higher number of renovictions.
“I don’t think that we can use those numbers as the total number of renovations that have happened because a lot of people just sign those forms,” said Hussey. “A lot of people don’t actually know that they have a choice [to fight a renoviction].”
Hussey also critiques the stats for not having a regional breakdown. She says the stats would have more value if people could see, for example, if most of the cases are concentrated in Halifax.
Hussey also notes that one application for a renoviction can represent several people. She pointed to a recent case she was involved with on Primrose Street in Dartmouth. There were 15 tenant applications fighting the renoviction, but the building had 23 units that would be impacted.
“We know that at least 23 people in that one building are impacted by renovation,” said Hussey. “And that’s just one of a few buildings that we are aware of that has gone through that process in the last six months. So, I think the numbers are not giving the full picture of what’s going on.”
The numbers given to IPOANS also show the number of landlords who struggle with collecting overdue rent. As of mid-July, there were 1,388 rental arrears orders issued; slightly outpacing the 2,434 received over all of last year. But these numbers are, at least, much lower in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, there were 3,326 orders. In 2020, that dropped to 2,018 and has been gradually climbing each year since.
Russell says a lot of people don’t realize how hard and time-consuming it is for a landlord to try and get overdue rent when they turn to the residential tenancies board.
“It takes up to three months to get a hearing. And then you got to go through the appeal process. It could take six months before you go through the whole process, and during that period the tenants aren’t paying the rent. That’s staggering.”
But even after months of grinding through the process, Russell says getting the back-rent is never a guarantee.
“The problem is you can’t get blood from a stone. People just refuse to pay, and they’d rather have a mark on their credit because they can’t pay the rent. So, the chances of getting the money collected is slim to none. That’s the problem.”
Russell is suggesting that Nova Scotia start a rental bank for tenants who are struggling to make ends meet. That way the tenant gets to stay in their unit, the landlord gets the money they’re owed.
Toronto has a rent bank and, in 2021, British Columbia made headlines for becoming the first province to provide 100 per cent coverage through its rent bank. In late June, New Brunswick announced its intention to start a rent bank but balked at reintroducing a rent cap.
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].