Caps on rent increases under the provincial Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act are not binding on the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB), the BC Court of Appeal has ruled.
In a June 5 decision, which overturns a BC Supreme Court judgment from last year, the appeal court found the provincial act was not constitutionally applicable to leased SIB lands.
The case dates back to September 10, 2007, when the band sent notice of a rent increase to tenants Christine Farmer and the late Jesse George, who resided in a mobile home park on Sechelt Nation lands in the Powell River area.
“This increase was a very substantial one from a yearly rent in the range of $6,500 to a yearly rent in the range of $24,000,” Court of Appeal Justice John Hall wrote in his 18-page decision, noting that Farmer and her family have been long-term lessees and are not band members.
The proposed increase “led to considerable controversy and discussion,” which went on for a three-year period until the fall of 2010, Hall wrote. “It appears that some accommodation was ultimately agreed whereby any rent increase was to be staggered over a number of years and would range from an annual rental of about $9,000 in the first year up to something around $18,000 in the fifth year.”
While lower than the increase proposed in 2007, the new amount was “still a significant rental increase to be borne by the tenants,” Hall wrote.
In October 2010, the tenants applied to the Residential Tenancy Board (RTB) and its dispute resolution officer ruled in February 2011 that the proposed rent increases were “ineffective.” The band applied for a judicial review, but last year Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman upheld both the RTB’s right to adjudicate in the dispute and its decision in favour of the tenants.
In his reasons for judgment, Hall cited sections in the 1986 Sechelt Indian Band Self-Government Act and agreed with the SIB argument that only the federal government has jurisdiction over “Indians and lands reserved for the Indians” under the Canadian Constitution.
“It is a matter that lies at the core of Indianness,” he wrote. “Interference on this subject by a provincial enactment is not permissible.”
In a press release, the band said the court’s decision places it “in a better position to fulfill its obligation to manage the Sechelt lands for the use and benefit of the band and its members.”
The release noted the rent increase in the dispute was based on fair market value indicated in an appraisal report that was prepared for the band.
