About the Tenant Survival Guide
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This page from JP Boyd on Family Law and others highlighted in orange explain trial procedure and litigation in BC family law. They are under editorial review to provide more thorough, current, and practical guidance. Since 2020, procedures, forms, and laws have changed significantly. While gross inaccuracies have been corrected, some details may still be outdated. These pages were not included in the 2024 print edition. |
The Tenant Survival Guide is intended to give tenants a basic understanding of residential tenancy law in British Columbia and what it means to them. The Guide is produced by the Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre, an educational organization promoting tenants' rights and affordable housing in British Columbia.
Top five survival tips for problem-free renting
- Read the Tenant Survival Guide.
- Have a witness with you and take pictures when you move in and out of a place.
- Get everything in writing.
- Think carefully about anything you sign.
- Pay your rent on time and get a receipt if you pay with cash.
If you still have problems, call the TRAC Tenant Information Line:
- Vancouver area: 604-255-0546
- Outside Vancouver area: 1-800-665-1185
Using this Guide
Relevant sections of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) or the Residential Tenancy Regulation are cited below select sections throughout this Guide. These sections are current at the time of publication, but may change if the Act changes.
The information contained in the Tenant Survival Guide is for informational purposes only. TRAC Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre cannot act as your lawyer, and its staff members are not lawyers. TRAC makes no representations, expressed or implied, that the information contained in this Guide can or will be used or interpreted in any particular way by any governmental agency or court. As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, and laws are constantly changing, nothing provided here should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.
Tenant Survival Guide © TRAC Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada Licence. This licence lets others share, reuse, remix, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the copyright holder and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Information about TRAC publications
For bulk orders of the Tenant Survival Guide please contact:
- The People’s Law School
- www.publiclegaled.bc.ca
To order one or two copies, contact TRAC at info@tenants.bc.ca or call our Infoline.
In addition to the Tenant Survival Guide in English, Traditional Chinese and Spanish, TRAC also publishes a Tenant Info pamphlet with basic information about tenancy law in BC. The pamphlet is available in English, Punjabi, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, Korean, Japanese and Portuguese.
TRAC also publishes a Landlord Guide in English, Traditional Chinese and Punjabi, as well as a Newcomers Guide in Simplified Chinese, French, Persian and Korean.
You can download all of TRAC’s publications from our website at www.tenants.bc.ca.
You can also ask for a copy of the Tenant Survival Guide, Landlord Guide, or Tenant Info pamphlet to be sent to you by calling the Tenant Information Line at (604) 255-0546, or outside the Lower Mainland at 1-800-655-1185.
Check out TRAC’s Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TRAC_BC.
Publication details
- First edition: 1984
- Eleventh edition: 2012
This Guide is published by TRAC Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre with financial assistance from Legal Services Society, the People’s Law School and the Law Foundation of BC. It is distributed by the People’s Law School (www.publiclegaled.bc.ca).
The following people worked on the tenth edition:
- Writing: Kris Anderson and Andrew Sakamoto
- Design and production: Teena Aujla
- Illustrations: Kate O’Connor
- Legal supervision/editing: Martha Jane Lewis
- Index: Anne O’Shea
- Project coordination: Kris Anderson and Andrew Sakamoto
TRAC acknowledges funding from The Law Foundation of BC, Province of British Columbia, City of Vancouver, Legal Services Society, the People’s Law School and United Way of the Fraser Valley.
| This information applies to British Columbia, Canada. Last reviewed for legal accuracy by Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre, 2012. |
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 Tenant Survival Guide © TRAC Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada Licence.
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