Winnipeg Free Press
June 20, 2001
By Paul McKie
WINNIPEG landlords have drastically increased the number of applications for
rent increases above the provincially mandated level because of last winter's
record fuel prices.
Tenants across the city have received notices from landlords informing them owners will seek rent increases above the 1.5 per cent level the Residential Tenancies Board set for the current year.
Opposing increase
Diana Morin said her Roslyn Road apartment will cost her more because the landlord wants a 4.5 per cent increase.
She's opposing the increase and organizing tenants in her building.
But property managers say the increases are inevitable given high heating fuel costs. Max Reich, owner of Astroid Property and secretary of the Professional Property Managers Association of Canada, said landlords absorbed an average increase of $25 to $30 a month more in heating costs per apartment suite.
"What we just came through was a brutal winter," said Reich.
Reich has a building on Balmoral Street that cost him $15,000 more for heating. While last year he only applied to increase the rent on a few suites above the provincial limit, this year he'll be looking at nearly all of them.
The volume of requests will be so high the Residential Tenancies Branch will be backlogged for months, said Reich. Landlords can impose the rent increase as long as they stamp the notice "subject to approval by the Residential Tenancies Branch", said Reich.
"All the landlords are going to be increasing. If they don't they'll go bankrupt."