Summary and Results:
A mediated settlement was accepted as opposed to escalating and pursuing a hearing. If the case had gone to a hearing, Mr. Andrade (CAPREIT's representative) had instructions to pursue the correct value of the application at 7.82% because the LTB used the wrong rent roll number.
LTB did not include the 2 vacant units in their calculation and the law states that an average rent should be assigned to the vacant units. Capreit would have won that argument. When the calculations were completed prior to the mediation, both sides used the correct numbers to come to the mediated settlement.
Bottom line, how does this translate to the 8 Park Vista Tenant? - original requested increase by CAPREIT of 7.82% minus what we got - 6.73%, a 1.09% reduction, translates to $13.08 per month savings or $156.96 per each year
Once again thank you to each Tenant that signed the petition for the $1,000 Tenant Defence Fund Grant, it allowed PVTA to hire an experienced paralegal to review our AGI case, crunched out the numbers, assessed any anomalies (and there were several) to get the 1.09% decrease.
A huge heartfelt gratitude of thanks to our paralegal Kevin Milburn who will once again represent the tenancy of Park Vista, this time assisting 2 Park Vista as they are about to embark on their AGI case.
This was a positive victory and although a bigger reduction was hoped for, given the laws and policies that govern the landlord's rights to capital expenditures and above guideline increases, it was the best we were able to do.
To update these existing laws, it is strongly recommended that you take action and write to your MP and let them know that capital expenditures are making rents more and more expensive and that a contingency should be established by the landlord for such claims rather than dipping into the tenant coffer.
Lastly, on behalf of PVTA, it was a sincere pleasure in representing the Tenants of 8 Park Vista during this process and working with Kevin Milburn.
Thank you,
Anna Guercio
President/Chair
Park Vista Tenants' Association
