In a public statement issued on April 29, the UN has accused Sweden-based Akelius Residential of practicing renovictions, something the multinational housing corporation has denied.
Akelius, which owns more than 7,000 apartment units in Toronto and Montreal, is facing allegations by UN special rapporteur Leilani Farha that it initiated invasive upgrades to its properties in order to “charge substantially increased rents to both new and existing tenants, enabling it to circumvent vital rent-control regulations which commonly allow for above-control rent increases where modernization works are undertaken.”
Toronto-based Akelius executive Shelly Lee maintains that local tenants are not being mistreated or forced from their homes, telling news outlets that “our policy isn’t to force anybody out, and only to renovate vacant units.”
Meanwhile, residents at an Akelius-owned St. Joseph low-rise are complaining of loud, unnecessary building upgrades and frequent service disruptions. In response, Lee emphasised that Akelius’ strategy has always been to buy older buildings and upgrade them, and that “all work done is necessary.”
The full UN report won’t be available for another six weeks, once it has been reviewed by governments in Canada, the UK, and Germany.
Working within the law
Under the Residential Tenancies Act, a tenant’s rent can only be increased once every 12 months provided the landlord has given 90 days written notice. For 2020, landlords in Ontario can only increase residential rents by 2.2 per cent.
The amount of the increase depends on whether the tenant is paying the maximum rent allowed for the unit. A landlord can make an application to the Board to approve a rent increase above the guideline in certain instances, including if the landlord incurred extraordinary capital expenditures through significant renovations and repairs.
The term “renovictions” is used to describe the unlawful eviction of tenants during renovations in order to replace the evicted tenants with those who’ll pay higher rents after the work is complete.
