The landlord had told them he wanted to raise the rent to $3,500 and when they complained he decided to raise it to $9,500.
“We know that our building is not rent controlled and this was something we were always worried about happening and there is no way we can afford $9,500 per month," Yumna Farooq said.
It’s frustrating that that’s a fixed date, instead it should be a floating date of 5 or so years.
The fixed date creates a weird scenario where the controlled supply is limited but the uncontrolled supply isn’t, which allows gross pricing disparities to arise and allows old-building owners and new to abuse their tenants (for old: you can’t afford to leave, for new: good luck getting a cheaper place, they’re all full).
A floating rent-control date balances things: developers only get to be greedy for so long, the supply of controlled housing is increases so pricing is more even, and landlords will want good relationships with tenants when they know they’re going to get “stuck” with them in a rent-controlled scenario.
… is still a bad idea. Let’s not focus on what kind of bat we’re beaten with; let’s just get Ontario back on track.
I’m not sure that works. The idea was that if rent control was lifted, there would be incentive to build new units. Trouble is, the building didn’t happen as expected. New housing starts even declined after the change came into effect. Balance is not going to give more incentive to build.
Since it didn’t work, we may as well go back to a proper rent control system. A proper one, not the completely ridiculous one that sees young, struggling families subsidizing rich retires that we currently have on those <2018 properties.
Any date is a bad idea