Quote:
Originally Posted by opendoor
I'm surprised there's no type of rent control in Alberta. As far as I'm aware, pretty much every other province in the country has limits on how much you can raise an existing tenant's rent.
I can certainly understand the notion that it's the person's property and they can charge what they want, but in other areas of the tenancy law there's a big distinction between what you can do with an existing tenant vs. a prospective one so it seems odd to me that rent doesn't fall under that too in Alberta. I mean, couldn't a landlord pretty much short circuit the normal eviction process by raising a tenant's rent to an unaffordable level so they'll leave on their own?
Personally, having been both a renter for several years and now a landlord of multiple properties in a province with rent control, I have no problem with limits on rental increases for existing agreements. Market forces (i.e. price to rent ratios) have had an exponentially larger impact on my returns than things like rent increase limits have. On the other hand, the predictability of future housing costs as a renter that came with those rules was invaluable to me.
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How do you control the amount that a landlord is allowed to increase?
In my situation I have a lease agreement for 1 year, at the end of that agreement I must move out unless a new agreement is made. If there are suddenly rent raise caps put in place would I just find myself without a new lease at the end of the term so that the landlord is now dealing with new tenants and can charge whatever he wants to again. Not that this would be worth doing every year for him but at times like this when we are talking a potential 20-30% possible increase.