The note from its new owners said the monthly rent per room at the 29-unit home at 6273 North St. will increase to $700 per month on August 1st. Smith currently pays $540 a month for his room, which includes a bed, table, sink, refrigerator, air fryer and microwave. His building area has no kitchen and residents share a bathroom. The new rate is nearly a 30 percent increase for Smith. Nova Scotia currently has a rent cap that prohibits any rent increase of more than two per cent until December 2023. It also states that rent can only be increased once a year and four months’ notice must be given. “It’s all about money. It’s greed, that’s all it comes down to. They want more money for it,” Smith said. The North Street room for rent was licensed in 2019 to have 29 units and 39 tenants. (Patrick Callaghan/CBC) The letter said that the tenancy of those who do not pay the increased rent “will be terminated”. Smith, who works as a laborer, said he doesn’t intend to pay the illegal increase, but also doesn’t want to move at a time when there are so few affordable options. The rent increase notice letter received by Barry Smith. (Submitted) “Where would I go? Live in a tent in a city park? I’ve been here [almost 14] years, I’ve never missed a rent payment,” Smith said. “I’m fighting this.” Shortly after receiving the letter, Smith went to Dalhousie’s Legal Aid Service for help. According to public property records, the rental room is owned by CB MacDonald Properties Ltd. since 1983. Late last year, three men bought the company and took over the North Street property in December 2021. When CBC News reached out to the building’s owners for comment, a representative sent a statement via email. “We had been told we were able to adjust rents according to the housing agencies we consulted, however we believe we may not have had all the information,” the statement said. In a later email, the spokesman said the owners decided to only raise the rent for the building’s tenants who receive income assistance.

One of the owners said he estimates more than two-thirds of the building’s tenants are on income assistance, and their social workers have approved the increase. He said tenants who do not receive income assistance, including Smith, will receive notice “within 24 to 48 hours” that their rent increase is being rescinded. At the time of publication, Smith had not yet been informed of this. Mark Culligan, community legal officer at the Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, said the landlords’ decision was discriminatory. “If that’s the landlord’s position, they’re openly violating the rent cap and doing it in a way that discriminates against tenants based on their source of income,” Culligan said.
“It’s 100 percent illegal,” he said. “Landlords cannot increase the rent by more than two percent. It is so simple. “And what we have here is a landlord trying to trick vulnerable people into paying more money under threats. He can’t evict people for refusing an illegal rent increase and can’t end everyone’s tenancy by August 1.”

The rent cap applies to any lease, the province says

According to the provincial department responsible for the Residential Tenancies Act, what CB MacDonald Properties is doing is breaking the law. “The rules set out in the Residential Tenancies Act and the rent cap apply to residential and weekly rentals as they involve a tenant-landlord relationship,” said Blaise Theriault, spokesperson for Service Nova Scotia and Internal. Services. The only tenants to whom the rent cap does not apply are those with commercial leases, those in public housing or those renting space in a mobile home park. Theriault said tenants or landlords can request a hearing if they believe the other party is not following the rules set forth in the Residential Tenancies Act or the temporary rent cap. Mark Culligan, community legal officer at Dalhousie Legal Aid, said tenants are living in buildings that are “unsafe, unsanitary and unsustainable” because “there are no other options”. (Dylan Jones/CBC) Lisa Ryan, a housing support worker and executive director of the South Shore Open Doors Association, said community organizations are seeing a “dramatic increase” in service provider requests for a rent increase. “I think there is frustration on the part of rental providers with the rising cost of living and of course the increased cost in property taxes and so on. “But these cost-of-living increases are also hitting renters at a rapid pace. And a more immediate impact is being felt by people on welfare or a fixed income.” This photo shows the size of the building, which extends back from the street. (Dylan Jones/CBC) Smith said if he doesn’t receive notice that his rent increase is being rescinded, he will pursue a hearing with residential rentals. “Every tenant in this province has rights to fair treatment, and every landlord has to follow those rights, whether they like it or not,” Smith said. “There are some things in the rental rules that landlords don’t like, there are some things in the rental rules that tenants don’t like. But we both have to abide by it.”