A HOUSING lawyer is warning tenants of a “greedy” tactic landlords can use to evict residents and put their homes back on the market at a higher price. 

Rob Patterson, from the Tenant Source and Advisory Centre, is warning residents in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada of the supposed loophole. 

Patterson told CBC News that there has been a rising trend of “bad faith evictions” in the region, with many appearing to stem from a loophole in the province’s Residential Tenancy Act. 

The statute includes a caretaker provision, which allows some landlords and management companies to evict tenants, as long as the unit is reportedly earmarked for a building caretaker who needs to move into a unit. 

After serving eviction notices, landlords are supposedly able to raise the rent for that unit and put it back on the market. 

Patterson is calling on the rules around the provided to be altered, comparing the apparent loophole to so-called “renovictions,” – in which landlords will evict tenants for supposed repairs before raising the rent of the unit. 

“There needs to be more certainty and more rules around it because it is a trend I’ve actually started to see very recently,” Patterson told the outlet, indicating that landlords should be forced to apply for an order of possession. 

Several tenants in the area have blasted the policy, with one calling it “greedy.” 

“It’s just heartbreaking to see that people would be served notice under these circumstances,” Plan A Real Estate tenant Mauricio Carvallo told CBC News. 

“It just feels greedy and abusive.” 

Carvallo is facing eviction under the caretaker provision and has decided to challenge it in court. 

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He is scheduled to appear for a hearing in November. 

While the provision is meant to provide a unit for an in-house building caretaker, some tenants have claimed that their landlords are not following through with that, instead telling multiple residents at the same time that they need to leave. 

“The odd thing is that it was between our unit or the other unit, and they were stressing this to me, making us feel guilty that if we said no, our neighbour would be evicted instead of us,” said fellow Plan A Real Estate resident Reina Goto. 

Ultimately, Goto and her partner agreed in March to end their tenancy with the building and leave by the end of June. 

While the couple had been told the eviction stemmed from the need to house a building caretaker, they found their apartment listed at more than $1,000 of the current cost. 

Additionally, she claimed to CBC News that there were multiple showings of the unit.  

Goto allegedly asked her management company why the listing existed, but supposedly did not receive a reply. 

Property manager Anoop Majithi has since claimed to CBC News that the apartment was rented out because the company was unable to find a caretaker in time and was fulfilling his duty to the owner of the building to move in a new tenant to the unit. 

According to CBC, the building’s owner is his wife. 

Patterson has called the use of this policy “very challenging,” particularly if a landlord poses eviction to multiple tenants at the same time. 

The lawyer says it creates “an incentive to evict” tenants in the region. 

For those who feel pressured by their landlord or leasing company to end their tenancy agreement in order to move a building caretaker into the unit, Patterson has recommended consulting a lawyer before complying with any requests.