Vancouver’s plan for SRO rent and vacancy control dealt another legal setback

The City of Vancouver’s plan to limit how much single-room accommodation (SRA) landlords can raise rents when a unit turns over has been dealt another legal setback.

On Friday, British Columbia’s top court dismissed the city’s appeal of a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that quashed its SRA Vacancy Control bylaws.

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The SRA category includes the more well-known single-room occupancy (SRO) units, as well as small, self-contained units. The units make up the bulk of Vancouver’s most affordable housing, but the city argues landlords have an economic incentive to displace tenants and raise rents when they leave.

In November 2021, Vancouver’s previous city council approved the policy, which would have tied rent increases to a specific unit, rather than its tenant.

Under the bylaws, an SRA landlord would have only been able to increase rent at the rate of inflation on a unit with a monthly rent of $500, and at the rate of inflation plus five per cent if the rent was under $500.

Two landlords took the city to court over the policy, arguing that the city had exceeded its authority under the Vancouver Charter, and that rent is already regulated under the Residential Tenancy Act. In August 2022 a B.C. Supreme Court judge agreed the bylaws were unreasonable, and declared them invalid.

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On Friday, The B.C. Court of Appeal upheld that ruling.

The Vancouver Charter “prohibits the City from using its delegated authority to regulate businesses in relation to a subject matter for which those businesses are already subject to regulation under another statute, for the same predominant purpose,” Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.

“Accordingly, the judge correctly found that the decision was unreasonable, the bylaws were invalid, and the proper remedy was to quash them,” she added.

In a statement, the City of Vancouver said it was “disappointed” with the ruling.

“The City respects the judicial process and remains committed to addressing the urgent need for low-income housing and protecting low-income residents residing in SROs,” a spokesperson wrote.

The city has not ruled out an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, saying only that it would take “the time necessary” to determine next steps.