ESR SR With electricity To CHANGE Tenants demand Landlords evade poor tenant law By ALD. HARRY RANKIN Tenant-landlord relations in this province continue to be in a mess, with tenants still getting. the dirty end of the stick. Tenants naturally welcomed the eight percent limitation on rent increases, while most landlords met it with howls of rage and anguish. But some landlords quickly found ways to circumvent the intent of the legislation and to - undermine its usefulness. Some landlords have simply ’ ignored the legislation and raised rents greatly in excess of eight percent. What’s more they’re getting away with it. But isn’t this breaking the law, you might ask? Sure it is, but the law is a weak one and the landlords know it. You see, itis not a criminal offence to break this law and there are no penalties for breaking it. Furthermore the law enforcement agencies of the gov't action against gouging landlords A capacity meeting at the Steel Union Hall in Vancouver last Wednesday, called by the B.C. Tenants Organization, heard many protests from tenants of landlord: violations of recent legislation. A resolution passed by the meeting said that the im- plementation of the Residential Premises Stabilization Act, which limits rent increases to eight per cent as of January 1, 1974, is being. handicapped by certain provisions. The resolution -pointed out that under Section 3 of the Act, the Lieutenant-Governor in Council (the cabinet), at its discretion, may exempt any municipality or regional district from the-eight per cent limitation on rents, on ap- Piication for exemption. The tenants rally demanded that Section 3 be struck from the Act and that the eight per cent limitation on rent increases be made effective for the full calendar year. Under present legislation it will only be in effect until the new Landlord and Tenant Act is proclaimed later in the year. The resolution also demanded that’ landlords be required to publicly post the rents in force during the last rental period ot 1973, and that anti-eviction provisions which spell out that attempts by landlords to evict Soi tenants because they are seeking their rights under the Act be made illegal and subject to heavy fines. Tenants also demanded in their resolution that the new Act provide for just cause for eviction, that any raise in rents above the eight per cent limitation be made illegal and that the Act specifically allow tenants the right to deduct any rent overages already paid.~ At last Wednesday’s tenants’ rally the recently launched survey by the landlords came under sharp fire and was roundly condemned. Meanwhile, spurred by Ald. Harry Rankin, the city council’s social services committee adopted a get-tough policy with landlords who are disobeying provincial regulations restricting rent in- creases to eight per cent a year. The action by the city came following representation last Thursday by Bruce Erikson, president of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, that a number-.of rooming houses in the skid road area were giving notices many of them not the | required three months notices, and demanding rent increases of up to 20 per cent. The social services committee of city council is recommending that the owners and operators of three hotels and a rooming house alleged : coke to have demanded illegal rent increases appear before city council to show cause why their business licences should not be cancelled. _ The premises brought to the attention of the committee Thursday were the Hampton Hotel at 124 Powell; the Olympia Hotel, 341 East Hastings; the Colonial Hotel, 122 Water St.; and a rooming house leased by Ker and Ker Ltd. Realty at 341 Gore Ave. In another development,: North Vancouver District Council last Monday agreed to send a letter to the provincial government seeking emergency legislation to stop eviction of tenants except for just cause. This action came following submission of a brief by Ernie Crist, vice-president of the North Shore Tenants Association, which urged council to set up a landlord and tenant advisory bureau until the pending provincial Landlord and Tenant Act is passed. A motion by Ald. Anne Fall that council set up such a bureau with North Vancouver council, was defeated. Crist told the council that rent increases have been excessively high and without justification, seine sips province are not charged with - enforcing the act. The only way a tenant. can get redress is if he launches a civil suit against a landlord. That means (in most cases) hiring a lawyer with the onus on the tenant to provide proof acceptable in courts. Many tenants don’t know their rights and in any case hesitate to launch a civil suit, for they would have to pay the landlord’s cost as well as their own if they lost the case. This is a weakness in the act that should be corrected but so far the government shows no signs of doing it. . Another way some landlords are . evading the act is by making under the counter deals with tenants. They simply tell them that if they don’t agree to pay the rent increase demanded by the landlord they’ll be evicted. And they’re not just threatening tenants, they are evicting them right and left. Again you might ask: But isn’t this against the law? And the answer is ‘no’. A landlord can evict any tenant for whatever reason, provided he gives the tenant 30 days notice. So you see, the tenant has no protection against such un- scrupulous: landlords. He either pays the 20 or 30 percent increase or he is kicked out. And at this time when the vacancy rate js just about zero, a tenant will think twice before taking a step that lands him out in the rain with no roof over his head. There is a bill before the provincial legislature now, Bill 105, the Landlord and Tenant Act, which could remedy this situation to some extent. It provides for eviction only if the landlord requires the premises for! for non payment of damage to the premises, a the tenant by his actions PI" neighbouring tenants - Be: joying their premises ne This is all good, but it loophole, and that 15 ei subject to the acre : rentalsman appoin dec provincial government. Te : one man a great deal of Pe dior One other way some ]@ bo have devised of overcoming, the limitation on rent 1m and the law whtel Bs apartment building> oe over to condom ne the so-called 99 year leas be - this means, the lanl fo aul tenant in effect to DUY © init just as if it were a condom ja This is another loophole 1” that needs closing. — ae I should also mention i; the new Landlord and Tea goes into effect, the 1a i rent to eight pele prot automatically be repeal pinets tS then on, the provincial ¢@” wit! order in council, will dee ble rent increases are prem what premises in wha province. How this Wl — still remains to be ee wills Vancouver City Counc! eS be discussing a recom ang that the city apply for Act 8 the Landlord and Tenan 105) giving a municipality establish a Rental Acco Grievance Board whic ‘hin This would be a 600 1, believe, better than penal man decide the fate % © “Actually I do have.a house in your, price range but it’s been condemne@- Aelia fame & > san nth — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 7,1974—PAGE 2 T= Canadian Establishment, regardless of which old- line party rules the roost, is second to none when it «comes to interfering in the internal affairs of another state — provided, of course that it is a socialist or progressive state. So Naturally, the interference is accompanied by con- siderable double-talk, humanitarian guff and the like. Our present regime of Trudeau-Sharp et al has become in- creasingly adept at this interference (under the guise of humanitarianism and civil rights) fully aware that it provides a good smokescreen for the dereliction of the same virtues at home. Who can forget the indignant lather a Diefenbaker, a Trudeau or a Stanfield can work himself into every time some dissident criminal in the USSR violates the laws of _ that country and lands himself ‘“‘in durance vile”’ for a period? = Hardly had our lachrymose leaders dried ‘heir crocodile tears for the fascist anti-Soviet Solzhenitsyn when they were again flowing copiously — this time for one Valentin Moroz, a Ukrainian nationalist who was and is seeking to “liberate” the Ukraine from the USSR. Moroz, like the fascists with whom he shares an ideological kinship, goes to every extreme to realize that “liberation” — including foreign military intervention, a return to fascist invasion . . . even the destruction of his own Soviet people. pas For the past couple of years or so, Moroz has been confined to a Soviet prison where he continues his coun- terrevolutionary activities; in confinement, but still epeeine: with foreign aid, to carry out his traitorous role. In this country, a score of daily newspapers have recently carried full length double column ad- vertisements demanding the release of .this anti-Soviet rodent. The ads are signed by some 200 Canadians in- cluding university professors, alleged journalists, editors and others — some of whose names appear twice. On the grounds of “relaxation of international tension,” “freedom” “human rights” and sundry other pretexts, all of which are scorned by the Establishment in this country, these signatories also express great “‘concern”’ for Moroz’ health and are fearful “that he may not survive.” As may well be expected the hot-liner Pierre Berton and the ex hot-liner Judy Lamarsh are well up on the list. -revo the right to turn back the clock to the pre the ex Since both, in their capacity as authors alist Sovieteers, are not above using a little bit 0" 1 + js i? sleight-of-hand to stack an anti-Soviet a or! surprising to see them taking the crimina any pre if their game. But one must look in vain to et thous” a. | whatsoever from such quarters over the fate at the par of Chileans, imprisoned, tortured and dyin& emocra of the military junta, the executioners of Chile. Nor has there been a whisper of conc fascist Greece which, since the end of Wor sought to strangle democracy. araw w The same gang, however, is quick on the of the comes to interference in the internal affeny Union — always on behalf of its handful eS criminals. The Bertons and Lamarshes may he‘ or perhaps they do know it only too well — ss rights” they demand for the criminal Mor less than the “‘right’”’ of imperialism to ma the Soviet Union, on the pretext of % multinational millions from the thraldom 7 Us, ern for Jd Wat z is days of Czarism with its “human rights” for t ie — and only serfdom and the knout for the ee Ultimately, that is what ‘‘liberating de in! means. And that’s why the Soviet Penal Ce nai the activities of the Solzhenitsyn-Moroz ©" grave crime against socialist society.