We entered a fixed term lease for 2 years and the end of year one is the end of this month. Our landlord emailed us on friday saying that he wanted to increase the rent by 50 dollars to cover for inflation. My question is can he do that ?
If he does that is this lease still valid or would we have to sign another lease.
We took this apt in a hurry, we had just had a baby our previous landlord wanted to sell the place. We wouldn't have time to look or move once my husband was done with his paternity leave.
After that email on friday, we have started looking at other places which are much cheaper than our current place. What is the proper way of breaking the lease ?
We would like to do everything in a proper manner. Thanks in advance.
In a fixed-term tenancy, a rental increase cannot take effect until the fixed-term ends, even if day number 365 falls within that lease. Landlords must time their leases to coincide with the potential annual rent increase, otherwise they must wait until the lease terminates.
You should serve the landlord with a notice of objection to the rent increase with the reason being that the increase is invalid and does not comply with legal requirements.
Tell him politely that the lease is for two years and that therefore it cannot be increased. Tell him also that you prefer to leave, say in 3 months, and that you are ok with a $50 increase if he converts the lease to a month-to-month lease. Then you can move out with one month notice if you so chose.
So I went back and re-read the lease agreement. There is a clause that states that he can increase the rent after one year. But it doesn't state by how much and it also doesn't state what happens if we don't agree to that amount.
Thing is we are not ok with this 50 dollar hike per month.
Another point, he informed us on June 14, that he wants to increase the rent by 50 dollars from July 01, can he do that ?
We have kept his place very neat, all of our rent payments were by post dated cheques and all were cleared on the first of every month. No trouble from our end at all.
Ideally we would like to live in a place for as long as we can (think decades) but I think for this landlord hikes are more important than tenants who take care of his place and don't give him grief.
We are new immigrants so learning the ropes of this renting thing as we go.
"Despite any agreement, declaration, waiver or statement to the contrary, a landlord shall not increase the rent payable by a tenant under a residential tenancy agreement in respect of a fixed term tenancy for a term of one year or more or recover any additional rent resulting from an increase during the term of the tenancy."
"Despite subsection (4)(b), if the 365th day occurs during the term of a fixed term tenancy, the landlord shall not increase the rent until the expiration of that tenancy."
This seems to read that the landlord cannot put a term in his lease to increase the rent during the fixed term tenancy. You could call the Landlord Tenant Advisory board at 780-496-5959 for further clarification.
There is no proper way to break a lease. If you decide to leave and the landlord cannot find suitable replacements, then you are legally obligated to pay the rent whether you live there or not.
Since the $50 increase is invalid, you can use that as a bargaining chip to either get out of your lease or switch to month-to-month, as Thomas suggested. Either way, get it in writing that the landlord has released you from your lease (rather than you breaking it) and therefore there will be no consequences.
If the lease states he can increase it then he can increase it, with three months notice. What about if he increased it to $12,000/month ? I'd say you are actually on a one year lease as in Alberta you can increase by any amount with three months notice, but if it is too high you can chose to leave. You seem to not have this option. The lease therefore may not be valid at all, or it is month-to-month like any one year lease.
Thank you all so much for your replies. We did email him telling him that we were not ok and were ready to leave the apartment if he pushed. Fortunately he has agreed to not increase the rent for the time being.
And hopefully I will be reading up more on this forum on what the rules and regulations are for tenants in Alberta so that it is easier for us.
