Brandon residents continue to deal with landlord problems

In today's economy, money is tight for everyone. Despite this, a development company in Brandon is heavily gouging tenants in at least one of its buildings without even making sure their building was in working order.

In January of this year, tenants were told they were to be burdened with a 15.2 per cent rent increase. After a letter in protest, the amount was reduced to 11.3. This in itself calls into question the validity of the increase.

In March, a further appeal signed by the tenants was sent to the Tenancy Board.

The board took six months to deliberate while tenants were forced to pay the new increased rent in order to keep their home.

In September, the board finally replied with an order to reduce the hike to 8.2 per cent, having dismissed some of the alleged expenses reported by the landlord.

However, the landlord countered with a plea of their own, citing an alleged miscalculation, and within a week and a half, the Tenancy Board reraised the punishing rent hike to 10 per cent.

To make matters worse, there have been problems with the elevator in the building and the parking lot is in need of repair. Unfortunately, a further increase is likely to pay for these essential repairs given the current management strategy. This has been unfair to the tenants, many of whom are living off their hard-earned pensions that have not been raised to match expenses. The Tenancy Board seems more interested in serving the landlord than the tenants whose interests they are to protect. Given the strong real estate market and the company's new ventures, raising their profit margin by taking more from those who cannot afford such dramatic increases is unfair and should be rejected by the Tenancy Board.

Economic restraint needs to be held by everyone and powerful development companies are no different.

Arlene Glendenning

Brandon

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