It's part of a "slight increase" in the number of such complaints that employees with Service New Brunswick are handling recently, according to Jessica Bernier, the province's chief residential tenancies officer.

"There is currently a low vacancy rate in the province, and so as a result, that has kind of a trickle-down effect to having an impact," said Bernier, speaking to CBC's Harry Forestell.

"So there is a slight increase in those particular requests. And also, obviously, media coverage does increase people's awareness and sensitivity to it. So it is something that we're seeing more."

Bernier said applications by tenants seeking to challenge a proposed rent increase remains a "small percentage" of the roughly 4,000 cases her offices handles in a normal year.

Jessica Bernier, chief residential tenancies officer with Service New Brunswick, said her office has seen a slight increase in the number of applications from tenants appealing proposed rent increases in recent months. (CBC)

For close to a year now, tenants from almost every corner of the province have come forward with stories of their landlord hiking their rent by anywhere from 40 to 70 per cent.

The actions by these landlords have forced some to find new places to live, and inspired calls for tighter controls on when and how landlords can increase rents.

Stats don't paint full picture

Aditya Rao, a member of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights, said the figures provided by Bernier don't provide an accurate picture of how many people have been hit recently with hefty, unreasonable increases in their monthly rent costs.

Rao noted that until last month, landlords had more freedom to hike rents, with no recourse for many tenants.

Prior to Dec. 17, only tenants who'd been renting a unit for more than five years had the option to appeal a rent increase with Service New Brunswick. Now, anyone can file an appeal with Bernier's office if they feel their rent has been unfairly increased.

"The vast majority of those rent increases could not actually be reviewed," said Rao, referring to notices issued before Dec. 17, 2021.

"The tribunal had no jurisdiction to review rent increases and do anything about them if you were not a long-term tenant."

The amendments also made it so that a landlord must now give a tenant at least six months notice of any rent increase, and cannot issue a rent increase to the same tenant twice within 12 months.

Rao said other tenants simply don't have the time or understand the process well enough to file an appeal.

Aditya Rao, member of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights, said the number of complaints received by Service New Brunswick likely doesn't paint an accurate picture of the number of unfair rent increases happening in the province. (CBC)

"The fact that the tribunal is not seeing a significantly large number of complaints is a reflection of the fact that the system is not accessible, that it doesn't protect tenants and that the government is allowing this exploitation to continue."

Changes still needed

Rao said the most effective tool for combating unfair rent increases would be for the government to introduce rent controls that capped the amount that a landlord could raise a tenant's rent annually.

Despite recent stories from tenants facing large hikes, Social Development Minister Bruce Fitch has said the province already has sufficient protections for tenants.

Rent control aside, Rao said tenants could also be helped out by requiring that landlords submit proposed rent increases to Service New Brunswick, which would then approve or deny the increase.

Bernier said right now landlords can issue a notice of a rent increase to tenants and if the tenant wants to appeal it, they can file an application with Service New Brunswick.

Bernier's team can then strike down the increase, or allow it, basing its decision on factors including the condition of the unit and how it compares to similar ones in the same neighbourhood.

Rao said that leaves tenants potentially fielding a series of proposed rent hikes, which they must take on the burden of challenging each time.

"It's an endless circus," Rao said.

"The landlord simply has to just bring forward a new notice and then the tenant has to start all over again, which is extremely stressful, extremely time-consuming for a lot of tenants who are trying to live a life during a pandemic."

"I just couldn't believe it," said resident Eileen Godin. "I've lived here for seven years and the most we've ever had for an increase is $25."

Godin lives in a 12-unit building on Bonita Avenue with her partner, Mark Taylor, and 15-year-old daughter. They are paying $725 a month, but were notified in October that it would jump to $1,100 on Feb. 1, an increase of 52 per cent.  

The property sold in September to a numbered company based in Langley, B.C., for $1.2 million. That's $517,500 more than Service New Brunswick valued it to be worth in its most recent assessment on Jan. 1. 

The numbered company that bought the property lists Ryan and Christina Leeper as its president and vice-president. Calls to their phone number on Wednesday went to voicemail and were not returned.

Rent hike followed appliance installation

According to Godin, each unit had washers and dryers installed following the sale to replace coin-operated machines in the basement. But she said that's not enough to justify paying an extra $4,500 a year to live there.

Godin believes a number of her neighbours are in the same position.
 
"The people that live in these buildings, they're making minimum wage and a little bit better, but nothing substantial," said Godin, who works at a fast-food restaurant.

Two apartments in the building are currently listed for $1,100 on Kijiji by the property management company as being available for rent as of Feb. 1.

Godin said most tenants "can't afford that kind of money."

A Statistics Canada report released in April 2021 found that rent increases in New Brunswick were the largest in Canada from March 2020 to March 2021, when rents rose by almost five per cent.

  Kit Hickey, the executive director for Housing Alternatives Inc., says unreasonable rent increases can cause escalating social problems, including homelessness. (CBC News file photo)

Huge rent increases 'not unheard of'

The family joins a growing list of New Brunswick tenants who have told CBC that they have been forced to move in recent months following the sale of their buildings and subsequent rent hikes.

Service New Brunswick said on Thursday that its seen a 'slight increase' in complaints about large rent increases.

It's something affordable housing advocate Kit Hickey says her office sees frequently.

"As these buildings turn over, they are seeing huge increases in rent. Fifty, 75 per cent is not unheard of," Hickey said. 

"What we're looking at are so many more people being forced into unaffordable housing situations," she said, adding that in some cases "all of the other necessities of life are forgotten. People are not eating properly, they don't get medications or they're forced into homelessness."

Hickey is executive director of Housing Alternatives Inc., which helps manage non-profit and co-op housing buildings throughout southern New Brunswick. It has no vacancies in any of its buildings.

Sufficient protections for tenants, minister says

Despite the recent substantial rent increases, New Brunswick Social Development Minister Bruce Fitch told CBC News on Tuesday the province has sufficient protections for tenants. 

He pointed out that there is a rule in New Brunswick that rent increases are not supposed to exceed what is generally charged in a given area in buildings of similar condition. That effectively constitutes "rent control," he said.

But in practice, increases of any amount in New Brunswick are allowed if a tenant does not formally object to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal within 30 days of receiving notice. 

And in buildings where some tenants file an objection and some do not, a tribunal ruling that an increase is unreasonable applies only to those who have submitted paperwork.

"If you don't make the complaint, it's not going to be acted upon," acknowledged Fitch.

Tenants in this building on Sussex Drive in Saint John received rent increase notices of up to 74 per cent in December. According to Statistics Canada, N.B. rent increases were the largest in the country from March 2020 to March 2021, when rents rose by almost five per cent. (Robert Jones/CBC News)

Complaints process difficult for some renters

Hickey says that is a problem because many low-income renters don't have the tools needed to understand the rules and fill out the forms. 

"Filing those complaints is not easy," she said. 

"Many people do not have the wherewithal or the expertise to make their way through the whole system. And you've got a lot of people who experience financial difficulty and have lived with it all of their lives and they don't have a lot of confidence in the system either."

Godin and her partner, Mark Taylor, were entitled to file an objection but chose not to do so.

Taylor said the process of objecting is cumbersome and his past experience with Service New Brunswick has left him with the impression it will favour landlords in a dispute with tenants.

"The paperwork and the stuff you've got to do, it's kind of ridiculous, really," he said. "You should be able to just make a phone call."  

Godin said the family managed to find another apartment nearby at a decent rent, but she is worried about what will happen if that building sells, too.

"The prices are going ridiculously high," she said. "I feel that it shouldn't be allowed. I think the government should put a cap on [rent increases] like they do in other provinces."