March 7th, 2013

In Spain there is a popular blessing. It goes like this “May no new things arise.” This blessing shows a belief that it is good to live in times of stability and consistency.

In China there is a well-known curse. The curse says “May you living in interesting times.” This is curse assumes times of change are not good ones.

Manitoba Landlords Get Ready. The Manitoba Residential Tenancies Branch has announced that several new rule changes passed last year went into effect last week on March 1st.

If you think the new rules help landlords deal with things like evicting bad tenants think again. Our current Manitoba government isn’t the only Canadian government that doesn’t seem very concerned about landlords dealing with violence.

So what do Manitoba landlords faces with these new rules from the Residential Tenancies Branch?

One of the new changes involved a way renters in Manitoba can challenge any rent increase they receive from the landlord. They can make this challenge even if the rent increase is only at or even below the government’s published guideline.

Since last March 1st, tenants can object to a simple rent increase for the following reasons:

1. They claim the landlord is not maintaining the rental property

2. They claim the landlord has withdrawn or even reduced a previous facility or a servce

3. They claim the landlord hasn’t been following the Manitoba Residential Tenancies Act

4. The tenants don’t believe the landlords costs have really increased.

Yes, you read #4 correctly. In this era of rising costs, the tenants can challenge the rent increase because they don’t believe the landlords costs have gone up. Gulp!

Other changes include renters will no longer have to pay for late fees for their rent if they can show the delay wasn’t there fault because it was outside of their power to do anything. For example, maybe there was a problem with the mail.

There are also huge changes for Manitoba landlords who do renovations.

The government says manyl forms have been updated for use beginning March 1, 2013.

These include:

-Manitoba landlords Notice of Rent Increase (Form 1A)

-Manitoba landlords Notice: Notice to New Tenant (Form 2),

-Lots of termination forms, including Notice of Termination by Landlord (for cause other than non-payment of rent) which is Form 10, and Forms 11A, 11B, and 11C.

Lots of Tenant Rights Changes and NOTHING for landlords.  More reason than ever before to make sure you find good tenants.

To discuss this and other landlord and tenant issues go to the Manitoba Landlord Forum