Skip to content

Mobile home tenant rules offer more compensation

Evictions for redevelopment a long-time issue for NDP
12216308_web1_20180606-BPD-mobile-home-park-wikicommons
Mobile home parks have been squeezed out by redevelopment as property values rise. (Wikimedia Commons)

More than a decade after Surrey MLA Harry Bains called for better protection for mobile home park tenants facing eviction, new regulations took effect Wednesday to increase their compensation.

Changes include requiring 12-month notice to end tenancy when owners want to close or convert a mobile home park to another land use. That’s one of the changes called for in a private members’ bill Bains tabled in the B.C. legislature in March 2007. (Details of changes are available here.)

Compensation for evicted tenants is now set at $20,000, an increase from the previous requirement that the landlord pay 12 months worth of pad rental fees.

RELATED: B.C. rental housing review begins

Mobile home tenants have been affected by rising property values and redevelopment, and in many cases long-term residents are unable to relocate their units. The new regulations also require additional compensation if a home can’t be moved, and tenants are not responsible for disposal costs.

The compensation is payable if the home can’t be moved to another site within a “reasonable distance,” and if the tenant does not owe any tax in relation to the home.

An earlier change in the Residential Tenancy Act also tightened rules for fixed-term tenancy, allowing eviction only if the tenancy agreement is a sublease, or if a landlord’s close family member intends to move in.

The B.C. housing ministry says it has retained measures to allow landlords to protect themselves from problem tenants.


@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.