So if/when rates go back down the tenants can apply to have their rent lowered back, right?
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2024
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Oh good! Does this mean the government's also going to protect my stock portfolio and guarantee those investments always succeed, too? Because if so, I should start having a stock portfolio!
Right?????
What the fuck?
If you invest in something you gotta assume the risk.
Past growth performance gave me good reason to expect that I would make money, too! But now I'm not! Government, help meeeeee!
Man, I can't wait until government schmuck decides that the stock I bought that dropped 80% over the course of the pandemic is 'unfair' and I should be compensated. Absolutely utter bullshit.
If their gamble on real estate didn't work out, take the hit, sell at a loss, and learn your lesson.
No fucking wonder people can't buy a starter home anymore.
The landlords, who are identified only by the initials S.O. and K.O., argued they had good reason to expect the rate would remain low when they purchased the property. The Bank of Canada had kept its interest rate low for more than decade, as part of the government's effort to stimulate the economy following the 2008 recession.
β¦ in 2021? We were in the middle of a global pandemic, economy was already starting to show signs of stress, and a nationwide property values had shot up 25% YoY. How did they even manage to make the argument that anyone in their right mind would expect interest rates to remain low until the end of their term?!
You raise a great point. That's @#$%ing absurd. It sounds like the "an arbitrator with the provinceβs Residential Tenancy Branch" was unqualified to work on this case if they do not understand that economic point
Because they're ignorant and entitled.
As a renter, this is deeply disturbing. Their rent is going up 7.7x the previously stated legal limit so that "Two B.C. landlords" who didn't properly anticipate the consequences of their borrowing can be bailed out of financial losses?! WTF are these "two B.C. landlords"? Corporations, probably, right? Modern-day capitalism is such a fucking grift: if you're not rich, you're on your own; if you're rich, you get bailed out. The renters did nothing wrong here: they were fiscally responsible. But the laws will be bent to extract (steal) unforeseen amounts from them in order to bail out wealthier people who chose to take on the risk they did to satisfy their greed. If you're not rich, standing on your own two feet isn't good enough. If you are rich, don't worry about standing on your own two feet--keep taking on risk to make more money and we'll protect you if you incur losses
I was always told landlords deserve to extract profit from the economy for nothing because of the risk they take on. Yet time after time it seems like they can't possibly tolerate any risk at all.
Holy shit. When are things going to snap and people start hanging or humiliating landlords like they did in China??
Things are so bad right now.
I say it is time for the feudal system to be abolished. No more Lords.
How on earth is it possible for an arbitrator to just override legislation like this?
Because they aren't overriding it - the legislation allows for these rent increases in certain circumstances. Not agreeing with the law or the decision, but the arbitrator isn't making up some new power.
Thanks, yeah admittedly I hadn't read the entire article before posting - and quickly realized the answer to my question when I did! I should really know better than to do that :)
Anyway, maybe the question I should have asked is more like, "why the heck did they give arbitrators so much latitude" - which it sounds like we agree on!
If I were to play devil's advocate, it would be that capped rent increases is to prevent predatory landlords from increasing rent more than their costs, but that if their costs go up more then they have a way to cover that without losing the property / going bankrupt.
That provision is maybe more acceptable when you're talking about families renting out their basement suite, but I have zero sympathy for investors who took a risk and lost. And even in the case of non-investor landlords, I'm skeptical that it's appropriate to make the tenant shoulder all the increased costs.
I'll be honest, I have zero sympathy for any landlord here. Rent control is necessary to (hopefully) make sure there is housing that people can afford to live in - and acts as a kind of limit to the extraction of an ever-increasing portion of the paychecks of the working class by the landlord class.
If the renter loses the ability to pay for a home, they become homeless. If a landlord loses the ability to pay for a property, they become a renter. Economic conditions changed? How about this: these landlords should sell, and make property prices drop a little, instead of having renters getting kicked onto the street.
Mortgage rates shouldn't be considered and no one should be bailing out real estate speculators. A competent investor knows there is a market rate for rent, and would consider the variable risk of debt financing and would never have considered the 'investment'. Owners of units that aren't highly leveraged have minimal exposure to these rate increases. These people are simply greedy speculators that not only took stupid gambles, they are partially responsible for the current real estate crisis in the first place. High leverage, low interest rates drove high demand and market scarcity.
This ruling needs to be disputed as the adjudicator's decision appears incompetent, prejudiced, or both.
"I find the world and economic events in reaction to the pandemic were not reasonably foreseeable and have impacted the landlords, despite them taking reasonable precautions by accessing a mortgage through a recognized and well-known lender," the ruling reads.
Really? It wasn't reasonable to foresee this crisis with record low emergency interest rates and highest real estate prices in history? Idiot.
Why allow rental rate hikes instead of allowing the tenants to purchase the building dirt cheap?
Why do they hate tenants?
I wonder what impact these kinds of government protections have on artificially inflating the property prices in BC
Why is it the tenant's problem when these "businesspeople" made bad business decisions?
Nobody owes you protection from the consequences of your own actions.
This is a dystopian ruling.