Moncton tenants are dealing with a transfer in the course of winter after hire will increase of just about 50%

Tenants in two Moncton apartment complexes are faced with rent and occupancy increases of almost 50 percent, the youngest tenants in New Brunswick who are financially shaken by the sale of their building to new owners.

“It’s stressful,” said Stephanie Killam, who shares a two-bedroom apartment with her mother in one of the two recently sold complexes, a 12-unit building at 427 High St.

“We are forced to move because we cannot afford the increase.”

Killam said her mother has a steady income and the two have called the apartment home for five years.

The day after the building was sold on November 30th, they were given three months notice that their rent would increase by $ 250 per month from $ 700 to $ 950 on March 1st, and that utilities would no longer be included in that payment are included.

A tenant in the second High Street building, which was sold to the same new owner that same day, received an identical notice.

The Killams announcement said the rent would increase from the current $ 700 per month to a flat rate of $ 950 plus utilities. (Pierre Fournier / Radio Canada)

That renter said NB Power provided an estimate of $ 90 a month for a balanced bill for a renter who pays their own utility bills.

That would add Killam’s total growth to $ 340 per month, or 48.6 percent.

“They just do whatever they want,” said Killam, who lost her job in June and is now taking out unemployment insurance.

Killam believes there should be a cap on the rent increase.

She said $ 250 a month plus utilities is “not feasible” for most people.

“We don’t make that kind of income,” she said.

Peter Jongeneelen, who has friends who live in the apartment building at 265 High St., says they’re trying to see if they can afford to stay there – and where to go when they can’t. (Pierre Fournier / Radio Canada)

Tenants are struggling to survive

There are similar concerns three blocks south.

Peter Jongeneelen has friends who live in the 12 unit building at 265 High St. and said they were having trouble figuring out if they could afford to stay there – and where they would go if they couldn’t can.

“Nobody can handle such an increase. It’s hard for the people in this area to make ends meet,” Jongeneelen said.

Everyone understands that “landlords have to make money,” he said, but there should be reasonable limits on rent increases.

“Increasing it by 50 percent is not a good thing.”

A current tenant of 265 High St., whom CBC News has not identified, said many in the building will be displaced by the elevation.

“It’s just not fair to increase so much in such a short amount of time,” said the renter.

“There are people who have been there for over five years and they are all thinking about moving because they simply can no longer afford it. They barely got over today’s rent.”

Service New Brunswick Minister Mary Wilson says a new poll shows New Brunswick rents are still affordable. (Photo of the CBC message file)

According to ownership records, the residential buildings were bought on November 30th for $ 720,000 each by a Dieppe firm called Johnsky Holdings Ltd. Bought.

Kyle Johnson is listed as the company’s president. A Kyle Johnson is also listed as a co-founder of K Squared Property Management in Moncton, the company that submitted the rent increase notices in both buildings.

Johnson was unavailable for an interview with the CBC. A reply to a text with a request for a comment was answered with a short message: “No interest in a comment. Please do not contact me again. Have a nice day.”

An email to the provincial communications department asking for comment on the rent increases in the High Street was not answered.

Three weeks ago, Service New Brunswick Minister Mary Wilson raised the issue of steep rent increases, saying they are rare and do not require government regulation.

Wilson came in after two double-digit rent increases – one in Moncton in October, where rent rose 62 percent after the sale of a building on Steadman Street, and another in November in Lincoln, where the tenant of a recently sold building quit were 50 percent rent increases.

“This is a very unfortunate isolated situation,” Wilson said of the 50 percent increase in Lincoln. “Landlords don’t raise rents across the province.”

Aditya Rao is a member of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights and says New Brunswick tenants need protection from sudden and excessive rent increases. (Skype)

Another call for rent increase rules

But Aditya Rao, of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights, said the recent increases in Moncton show that previous cases are not isolated.

“Even if there were only two cases, I don’t think that’s a reason to wash our hands,” he said.

Rao again called on the province to put in place rules to protect tenants from large rent increases in the future

“The vast majority of landlords would cost them absolutely nothing because the vast majority of landlords are not trying to undermine the system,” he said.

Stephanie Killam said she and her mother see no other option but to leave the building sometime this winter.

“It’s not something I like to do. I don’t like change, but we don’t have a choice,” said Killam.