AJAs 2017 Finalists
Attachments
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Short explanation of the story and how it developed: The Nova Scotia government is under pressure to do more to protect tenants under pressure from evictions, illegal rent increases and a shortage of apartments. One step it could take, and hasn’t, is to limit the use of fixed-term leases to evict people. Another is to put an end to renovictions. The Residential Tenancies Act allows landlords to evict tenants for necessary renovations, but many landlords have used this as an easy way to skirt caps on rent increases. Further, what few protections there are in the act are not being enforced. Sometimes the very institutions that tenants rely on to uphold their rights—the Residential Tenancies Program and small claims court—actually work against them. We wanted to put a human face on these issues while explaining the basic forces at play. Headline: ‘Failing renters’: Halifax man staves off renoviction, wants tenancy laws enforced This tells the story of Jeremy Van den Enyden's struggle to keep his home in the face of renoviction. Under the law, renovations have to be so extensive as to justify kicking tenants out of a building and the process must be done in good faith. Van den Enyden's case illustrates what many tenants are up against. His landlord never provided him evidence of the renovations for the building and questionable tactics were used to try to force him out. He ultimately prevailed in small claims court but his story shows how difficult it is to fight renoviction especially since the province's tenancies laws aren't enforced. Headline: Twelve Truro families on one street kicked out in rash of evictions Twelve families living in a block of duplexes in Truro were told to leave after their homes were sold. I found out about this when a parent of one of the tenants reached out about what was happening to these young families. In each case, the buyers said they planned to move into one side of the duplex and move family members into the other side. The story shines a light on a problematic provision of the residential tenancies act that allows landlords to evict under the guise that they or a family member will move into the property. Since there's no enforcement of tenancy laws the provision can easily be exploited by a landlord who simply wants to empty a unit for the purpose of jacking the rent. The story shows how easy it is to circumvent the rules, especially when tenancy laws are not being enforced. Headline: How court, tenancies board mistakes cost a young Nova Scotia family their home The Carr family was forced out of their home because their landlord also wanted to move his sister into the home. Under Nova Scotia tenancy law, a landlord can only evict to make room for a spouse, child or parent. This simple rule should have kept the Carrs in their home, but was missed by the Residential Tenancies Program and the Small Claims Court, which ruled in the landlord’s favour. |
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Resources of the newsroom (money and time) available to complete the story: Taken together, the series took several weeks to complete. It required going over dozens of pages of documents: court records, emails and texts between tenants and landlords. I travelled to Truro from Halifax twice to find families I couldn’t reach otherwise, speak with them, and take photographs. On one trip, I encountered the landlord who’d sold the properties handing out fresh eviction notices and found out he and his wife were doing the same thing elsewhere in the province. |
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