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renovict
< clipping of "renoviction"
DCHP-3 (Nov 2022)
v. — Housing, Law (informal)
to circumvent eviction laws by performing renovations of a rental unit.
Type: 1. Origin — The term is almost exclusively used in Canada (see Chart 1). The verb renovict appeared after the noun renoviction in the record. Renoviction is first detected via Twitter in 2004, five years before the first attestation of the verb renovict. The term is currently not listed in OED-3.
See: renoviction
Quotations
2009
Broster, who's been living at the Seafield for 16 years, accuses Nelson and Gordon of using the loopholes to drive the Seafield tenants out in several ways, including threats to evict them to make way for renovations. Some tenants living in other buildings say when they were evicted to make way for renovations, the work turned out to be nothing more than a coat of paint.
The Gordon Nelson application is also under review at city hall. The practice is becoming so common in the West End, it's been dubbed "renoviction." And according to the Residential Tenancy Act, it's legal.
"It was after we fought that move that they applied for the rent increases," says Broster, an architectural intern. "Now they're trying to 'rentovict' us."
2009
Schaefer worries that if Gandham gets permission to "renovict" the tenants through the use of a building permit, it will set a very dangerous precedent.
2014
One person facing renoviction is Teri Apps. Apps works with disabled students at Mount Elizabeth secondary school in Kitimat as an education assistant.In February she got a letter from her landlord saying they were applying to B.C. Housing for approval to renovict everyone in her apartment building. Currently she pays $750 a month for her two-bedroom apartment, which she said she was lucky to find last June.
2015
"We wanted money to be re-invested in the work done to the building, so to layer on an additional fee to that detracts from our main purpose," Bond said. "We want [owners] to spend all available funds, recognizing that [they're] constrained and upgrading the building."
Longtime housing advocate Wendy Pedersen urged council to have the $125,000 fee apply to owners who effectively "renovict" tenants when they make repairs to rooms. Pedersen said the average rent for a single-room-occupancy hotel is $485 per month.
"We're losing 300 rooms a year, the city says, to that process," Pedersen said after the meeting.
2018
Tenant advocates in Hamilton are pressing the new council to better protect tenants from "renovictions."
That refers to when landlords force tenants to move out while they renovate buildings.
Hamilton ACORN wants the city to keep track of "tenant buyouts," when renters are offered cash incentives to leave so rents can be jacked after renovations.
2022
When home prices were rising fast, who really cared about the real-life costs of owning versus renting? Owners got rich on rising equity, while renters got rent increases and eviction notices. It wasn’t a fair fight.
Renting is no bargain today, and it’s still a precarious way to live for those with landlords who jack up rent or “renovict” tenants. But the argument that renting is the same cost as owning is over. No more pretending.
References
- OED-3
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