My Landlord Wants to Evict Me

If you rent your home from someone else, you are probably covered by the Residential Tenancy Act. If so, your landlord needs to have a good reason to evict, you such as if you do damage to his or her property, seriously disturb your neighbours or don’t pay your rent. The landlord can also ask you to leave if he or she is doing major renovations or getting a close relative to move into your place.

The landlord must give you written notice before you can be evicted:

• 10 days in advance if you haven’t paid your rent on time.
• one month in advance if you or your guests put your landlord’s property at risk or used it for an illegal purpose. The landlord may get an order for shorter notice if you have been involved in illegal activity.
• one month in advance if you have broken a material term of your tenancy agreement, such as:
  • being repeatedly late in paying rent,
  • subletting your place without the landlord’s consent,
  • damaging the place beyond reasonable wear and tear,
  • jeopardizing safety, or
  • unreasonably disturbing your neighbours
• 2 months in advance if the landlord is doing major renovations or a close family member moves in.

First steps

1. If you are being evicted for not paying your rent, you can pay it within 5 days of receiving the eviction notice. If you do this, the notice of eviction will be cancelled, unless the landlord is claiming that you have repeatedly been late in paying your rent.
2. Otherwise, if you believe the landlord does not have good reason to evict you, get and complete a Tenant’s Application for Dispute Resolution available from the Residential Tenancy Branch or most Service BC (Government Agent) Offices. [See #52-Service BC, or #49-Residential Tenancy Branch, in Part 2 of this Guide for contact and website information]. The application is available on the Residential Tenancy Branch website.
3. Send the completed application or take it in to a Residential Tenancy Office or Service BC (Government Agent) Office together with a filing fee of $50. If you can’t afford $50, you can apply at the office to have the fee waived. You generally need to file the application within 10 days of receiving the eviction notice.

What happens next?

Residential Tenancy Branch staff will look at your application. After the application has been approved and you have paid your $50, you will receive Hearing Documents. You need to serve a copy of these documents on your landlord.

At the hearing with a Dispute Resolution Officer, the landlord will have to give evidence of why he or she wants to evict you. You will then be given the chance to say why you shouldn’t be evicted. The Dispute Resolution Officer will make a decision about whether or not you can stay in your place. If you don’t like the decision, you can apply to review it by completing an Application to Review a Dispute Resolution Officer’s Decision or Order and paying a $25 filing fee. However, there will only be a review if you missed the original hearing, you have new evidence that was not available at the time of the original hearing, or the decision was obtained by fraud. Otherwise, only a Supreme Court Judge can change a Dispute Resolution Officer’s decision. You will need advice from a lawyer to do this.

Where to get help

See Part 2- Resources, starting on page 43, for a list of helpful resources. Your best bets are:

• Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre.
• Residential Tenancy Branch.
• PovNet, for contact and website information for tenancy advocates near you.
• Access Justice, Lawyer Referral Service, Salvation Army Pro Bono Lawyer Consultation Program, Private Bar Lawyers.

Before meeting with a lawyer or advocate, complete the form Preparing for Your Interview in Part 3 of this Guide. Make sure you bring copies of all documents relating to your case.

The above information does not apply if you are evicted from your home on an Indian Reserve. If this happens to you, you should speak with a lawyer.