An Orillia family of eight is wondering how they will get by after their landlord recently notified them their monthly rent is increasing by $850 this June.
Janet Curl, 36, and her partner Daniel Hill, have lived in a four-bedroom West Ridge home, along with their six children, since February 2020.
When her family moved in, she said her rent was $2,250 plus utilities, and with the incoming hike – which their landlord served to them via an N2 form – their rent will climb to $3,200.
Curl said their rent was raised slightly during the pandemic, at the insistence of their landlord, even as a province-wide COVID-19 rent freeze was in effect.
Faced with the daunting rent increase set for June, Curl is not sure how she and her family will pay the bills.
“I feel defeated. It's all so fresh, and I'm … devastated,” Curl said. “I don't even know how I'm going to provide for my family, how I'm going to feed them, even if we stay and pay that rent. How am I going to feed them?”
Currently, Hill works as supervisor for an excavation company, and Curl runs a house cleaning business, while also doing coursework to become a sales representative for RESPs to bring in additional income for her family.
“I can do my cleaning company during the day, and then sales at night. I have no choice but to work two jobs,” Curl said. “I will live my life working. I won't have any time for my kids, that's for sure.
“If our rent had to stay where it is, we would be OK. We would make it work, but $850 more – there's no way, and now we're never going to be able to get out of here," Curl said.
Curl said she and her family have just got caught up from the pandemic, and although they have been searching for alternative options within Orillia for some time, they cannot find anything that will work.
“We've been looking for somewhere for quite a while now, but there's nothing out there. Everything's so crazy priced,” she said.
Her family’s expenses have made it difficult to save for a move, even if cheaper options were available, she said.
“Trying to save so that we can get out of here was impossible. Things happen, right?” she said. “The pandemic put us behind because I was at home, then we got into a car accident, our other dog died, and we just had to put $4,000 into a transmission, like it's nonstop, and then this was the cake topper, for sure.”
Curl said her West Ridge home was built in 2018, which lis why it is exempt from rent controls that apply to older rental units.
That same year, the government removed rent controls for new units occupied beyond Nov. 15, 2018, in an effort to incentivize developers to create more rental units.
“I'm really disappointed in our government for allowing something like this, knowing that there are greedy landlords out there that would take full advantage, like mine,” Curl said. “I'm really disappointed that they're not looking out for us and being there for their people.”
As a mixed family, with children from previous relationships, both Curl and Hill feel the need to stay in Orillia to keep their extended families together.
“We've only been here for three years, so they're settling into their schools and their situations and making friends in the neighbourhood,” Curl said. “The change … is probably going to be really, really tough if we do move.
“The other parents that are involved are close to us, so we would need to stay in Orillia. We can't uproot them from their other parents either," she explained.
Michael Hefferon, executive director of the Community Legal Clinic, said there is little tenants in this situation can do.
“The exemption is, I guess, in theory meant to increase the amount of housing supply, but it did provide as an incentive for landlords this exemption to rent control, so there's nothing that tenant can do about that,” he said.
However, he wondered whether Curl’s home was occupied on or before the Nov. 15, 2018 cutoff date for rent controls.
"If the exemption applies, the landlord is able to increase the rent to whatever he or she wants on 90 days’ notice. If a tenant had a lease, an increase in the rent provided by the lease could not apply until the lease expires," Hefferon explained in an email.
Hefferon said most of the housing situations his firm deals with involve units built prior to 2018, and said a case such Curl’s is “pretty unusual.”
“They should be contacting us. We always look (at) the notice of rent increase and make sure that they've given their 90 days required,” he said.
“In terms of the money, we would look at the form of the notice of rent increase to make sure there was no defects in it, and … we'd also explore the issues of potential harassment if she was bothered during the rent freeze for a rent increase," Hefferon said.
Hefferon encouraged anyone with legal questions surrounding their tenancies to reach out to his firm, which serves Simcoe County, Kawartha Lakes, and Haliburton.
In a statement, Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop said the province has capped the maximum rent increase at 2.5 per cent, below inflation, for the "vast majority" of Ontario tenants.
Dunlop said rent may only be raised provided proper written notice, "at least 90 days in advance, and if 12 months have passed since the first day of the tenancy or the last rent increase."
"If a tenant believes that a landlord has not followed the rent increase rules, the tenant can apply to the LTB to address their concerns. For example, if they believe they have paid an improper rent increase, they can apply to the LTB to recover the illegal rent," Dunlop explained. "Further, should tenants need help to pay their rent, they are encouraged to contact their local service manager about what housing supports may be available to them."
"We continue to look for ways to make homes more attainable for hard working Ontarians, while making it easier to build more houses and rental units to address the ongoing housing supply crisis."
