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Rents jump at Maple Ridge ‘renoviction’ apartments

Holdout tenants forced to leave town.
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Gail and Robert Halliday at a press conference hosted by the Alliance Against Displacement. (News files)

With their rent having skyrocketed due to a so-called ‘renoviction’ at their building, a retired Maple Ridge husband and wife have been forced to move away from the city they have called home through their entire married life.

Robert Halliday has lived in Maple Ridge since he was nine years old. Now 66, he and wife Gail have to move to Abbotsford to find a rental rate that his fixed income can afford.

The rent for his unit at Esme Manor in downtown Maple Ridge will rise from $750 to $1,300 for a one-bedroom apartment, after all tenants have been evicted for renovations from the 22 units.

The issue was brought to light at a press conference hosted in July by the Alliance Against Displacement, which advocates for affordable housing across the Lower Mainland. The two-storey apartment building, which housed low-income tenants, was purchased by a numbered company, and all tenants evicted as the building was updated.

The Hallidays tried to fight their eviction. Their appeal was based on the fact they had been defrauded out of $1,400 in a separate online rental posting, and so were late filing an appeal of their eviction with the Residential Tenancy Branch. They asked for the right to appeal, but last week the branch ruled they would have to move.

“It’s been a horrible nightmare,” Gail said after the ruling. “This whole thing is unbelievable.”

They couldn’t find affordable housing in Maple Ridge.

Gail said they could have stayed in the building and moved into another unit under renovations when it is finished. But then the landlord would be legally limited in how much rents could be raised.

Landlords are limited by the province to an increase 3.7 of per cent in 2017, and four per cent in 2018, with one increase allowed in a 12-month period.

“All of our friends are here, my doctor, sons and daughter … it’s kind of a big shocker to move to Abbotsford now,” Robert said.

“I don’t know anybody there,” echoed Gail.

Guy Bouchard, a spokesman for the company that owns the 46-year-old building at 22225 – 119th Ave., said the $800,000 renovation will make the building an asset to the downtown, and should be looked at as a positive.

He confirmed the new single unit rents will be $1,300, and added the two-bedroom rents will be $1,500 and $1,600.

He said that is the reality of the rental market in the Lower Mainland.

“It’s a strong market. There’s not a lot of factors holding it down.”

Bouchard said the landlords worked with evicted tenants on “customized solutions,” such as helping with moving costs, even providing labour for moves and giving damage deposit returns regardless of the condition of suites.

He said one tenant refused to move, and was evicted by bailiffs.

“We feel we went above and beyond,” said Bouchard.



Neil Corbett

About the Author: Neil Corbett

I have been a journalist for more than 30 years, the past decade with the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
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