‘Legal loophole’ leaves Manitoba renters vulnerable to astronomical rent hikes, says new study

February 12, 2025 Canuck

Manitoba landlords use cosmetic upgrades to “tack on” astronomical rent hikes above provincial rent controls, and it’s all perfectly legal, a new study says.

Released Wednesday, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives study looks into above-guideline rental increases in Winnipeg’s West Broadway neighbourhood by analyzing experiences of tenants who’ve been pummeled with relentless price increases, some for several consecutive years.

“I’ve lived in West Broadway for five years now, and in that time my rent has gone from roughly $940 to over $1300,” said study participant Neil Kraemer in a Wednesday press conference held at Crossways in Common on Furby Street.

“In those five years I’ve dealt with three above-guideline increases. So now, every fall when the lease renewal comes it’s a yearly frustration… how much are they asking for now?” said Kraemer.

Kraemer is currently waiting to hear back on the results of fighting a 16 per cent above-guideline rental increase, which he says he’s currently paying in the meantime.

Man speaks at a microphone by a panel that says Right to Housing. — Fourteen tenants participated in the study and collectively experienced 27 above-guideline rent increases between them, which ranged between three and 43 per cent through 2008 and 2024. (Josh Crabb/CBC)

Tenants reported that the increases are often linked to unnecessary building changes, like painted trim and changed light fixtures instead of essential repairs — and the bill falls to renters.

“We’re paying for buzzer systems, flower beds, air conditioner boxes — stuff that we didn’t order. Meanwhile, the apartment’s flooding, and the [piping] should have been paid instead,” one renter in the study said.

Fourteen tenants participated in the study and collectively experienced 27 above-guideline rent increases between them, which ranged between three and 43 per cent through 2008 and 2024.

Researchers analyzed the interviews conducted with participants in 2024. Scholarly research and local media stories were also included in the study.

Tenants interviewed for the study lived at properties managed by Thorwin Properties, Globe Property Management, Alliance Asset Management, Sussex Realty, Houston Property, D7 Properties and Onyx Property Management.

“It does seem like the story is happening over and over again,” said one of the study’s writers, Amanda Emms.

“They pay these rent hikes in perpetuity, even after whatever repairs have been paid off, the rates remain,” Emms said.

Woman wearing a pink vest stands in front of wall with paper hearts. — Amanda Emms is a researcher and one of the writers for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba Office study, which found average above-guideline rent increases were over 10 per cent over between 2019 and 2021. (Josh Crabb/CBC)

Technically, landlords aren’t doing anything wrong under current legislation.

Rental units are protected by rental increase guidelines set by the province and based on the Consumer Price Index, but social housing, newer building apartments that are under 20 years old, and units that rent for more than $1,640 per month are not protected.

Yutaka Dirks, a Right to Housing Residential Tenancies Working Group representative, says landlords of newer buildings don’t even need to apply for an above-guideline rent increase when they want to raise the rent.

For older buildings, landlords must apply for approval for an above-guideline rent increase if the standard guideline won’t cover operating and capital costs for the unit that year.

“They’re not actually a way for landlords to recoup costs,” says Dirks.

“AGI’s [above-guideline rent increases] are a way for profit margins to be increased on the backs of tenants.”

Residential Tenancies Branch typically approved landlords’ above-guideline rental increase applications, with average increases of over 10 per cent over the three years analyzed in the study, between 2019 and 2021.

That’s well above the two per cent average standard guideline the branch set for those years. This year, in 2025, the guideline caps rental increase at 1.7 per cent.

Nearly 60,000 units in Manitoba were impacted by above-guideline rent increases during that time.

Difficult appeal process

Many of the tenants interviewed for the study said they were so overwhelmed by the process that they did not try to fight the rental increase after receiving the notification.

Most interviewees reported fear for the future of their housing if they tried to fight the rental increase, citing precarious employment and fear of retribution from their landlord.

The study said tenants who fought the increase had to go in person to the Residential Tenancies Branch during office hours within two weeks to review their landlord’s application, or submit comments.

The tight timeline was unmanageable for many participants.

During the pandemic, tenants in a building overseen by Onyx Property Management at 149 Langside St. received a notice for a 14.3 per cent above-guideline rent increase in spring 2022.

Tenants turned to the West Broadway Tenants committee for support and formed a tenant association. One third of the tenants submitted written objections to the RTA, and their rents increased to 13.3 percent in June.

‘Rental industry must raise prices’

Avrom Charach, spokesperson for the Professional Property Managers Association, says the rental industry has to increase prices along with inflation.

“We’re no different than any other business or any other person. We face increases, we need to be able to deal with the increases,” Charach said.

Charach said above-guideline rent increases have been a part of the Residential Tenancies Act for 40 years and the act is reviewed annually.

“Every stripe of government has found it to be fair,” Charach said.

“It’s far from a loophole, it’s actually a system that was put in place by the provincial government, happened to be the NDP government at the time.”

A bill was proposed last year and outlined concrete steps toward limiting above-guideline rent increases through changes to the Residential Tenancy Act, but it did not make it past its first reading in the legislative assembly.

The bill is now in the hands of Minister of Public Service Delivery Mintu Sandhu, who says his office is reviewing the Residential Tenancy Act.

“We are concerned about what we are seeing. But we want to make sure when we review this act, we get the sides of both sides. Renter’s side and as well as landlord’s side,” Sandu said.

More than 90 per cent of residents rent their home in West Broadway, which houses 5,590 people living in 3,370 dwellings, according to 2021 Census data from the City of Winnipeg.

Twenty-four per cent of the neighbourhood’s population identifies as Indigenous, including Métis, First Nations and Inuit.

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