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Four winners awarded Alberta Consumer Champion distinction

The Legal Studies Program (Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta) and the Alberta Real Estate Foundation received the Award of Distinction for their joint work to create an educational website on renting in Alberta: Laws for Landlords and Tenants in Alberta

Government News Release

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Alberta government creates one-stop service centres for housing pressures

The Alberta government has created one-stop service centres for housing pressures. The centres are meant to assist in a number of areas including: 
emergency housing, rent supplements and general housing programs and services.

Government News Release

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Changes to Tenancy Laws 2007

Service Alberta oversees and enforces the laws that set out the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants in Alberta. Changes to the Residential Tenancies Act and Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Act are being introduced that will limit rent increases to once a year for fixed term and periodic leases. If passed, the changes will be retroactive to April 24, 2007.

With the new limits in place, landlords must still give three month's notice to tenants before rents increase. For mobile home sites, the notice is period is 180 days. Landlords wanting to end a tenancy to do major renovations or to convert a rental unit to a condominium will need to provide at least one-year notice and rental increases will not be allowed during that year.

Changes to landlord-tenant legislation to help stabilize rental market (news release)

Government News Release

April  2007 ________________________________________________________________

Province establishes safety standards for secondary suites

The Alberta government has created new construction and maintenance standards for secondary suites. The new standards follow 12 recommendations from an MLA review committee on secondary suites , which are self-contained living units that include a kitchen, bathroom and separate exit created in a single-family home.

Standards include specifications for ceiling heights, windows, fire protection, interconnected smoke detectors, heating and ventilation systems, as well as separate exits.

Click here for the complete government news release and backgrounder.

Secondary suites information page from Municipal Affairs

November 2006 ________________________________________________________________

$5 million approved for new rent supplement program in Edmonton

Three orders of government are joining forces to provide rental assistance to an estimated 400 low-income households in Edmonton. The new program is part of the City of Edmonton's Cornerstones Plan, and will receive $5 million over five years to provide rent supplements for families in urgent need of housing assistance.

A total of $2.5 million will be invested in this initiative under the Canada-Alberta Affordable Housing Program Agreement. The City of Edmonton will also provide $2.5 million and will administer the program.

Click here for the full Government news release

October 2006

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Final consultation on proposed safety standards for secondary suites

Secondary suites are self-contained living units created within single-family homes. These suites include a kitchen, bathroom and a separate entrance, and provide Albertans with an affordable housing option.

An MLA review committee chaired by Moe Amery, the MLA for Calgary-East, consulted with municipalities and the public across Alberta on whether safety standards should be developed for secondary suites. The committee has presented a final report on this matter and recommended the adoption of building and fire standards.

Click here to read the MLA committee's final report (pdf)

Click here for more information about the final consultation from the Alberta Municipal Affairs website

Changes to rules for home suites could mean more Alberta housing (CBC news story)

August 2006

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Changes to Alberta's Residential Tenancies Act

Changes include:

• A definition of when a tenant may be deemed to have given up possession of residential premises.
• A requirement that rental premises comply with Public Health Act standards at all times.
• Requirements for landlords to keep records relating to inspection reports, abandoned goods and security deposits.
• Requirement for landlords to return the balance of an account of a security deposit personally or by registered or certified mail.
• A reduction from 48 to 24 hours notice for tenants who have done significant damage, physically assaulted or threatened to assault the landlord or another tenant.
• Clarification as to when a tenancy agreement becomes frustrated due to contravention of public health or health and safety laws.
• The ability to give certain notices by electronic means where a landlord has broken his or her obligations under the Act and an order has been issued under the Public Health Act in respect of that breach.
• Provision for an alternate dispute resolution mechanism to be introduced by later regulation to resolve disputes under the Act.
• The appointment of a Director of Residential Tenancies.
• Powers of the Director, or persons appointed by the Director, to enter the premises of a landlord to see if requirements regarding the keeping of records are being fulfilled, to take copies of documents, remove documents and to request a court order for entry where a landlord is not compliant.
• The ability of tenants to give notice to a landlord to end a tenancy where a landlord has broken his or her obligations under the Act or an order has been issued under the Public Health Act.

Other Resources
See Alberta Government Services - Landlord and Tenant for the Table of Concordance (pdf). A table of concordance is the information that shows where and how a law has changed or is going to change. The table will refer to a section of the existing law by number and then indicate if that section will have a new number or not. The table will then describe what the change to the section will be and sometimes will also give the reason for the change.

See the Queen's Printer for the new Residential Tenancies Act.

Voluntary Code of Practice provides information about the law for landlords and tenants.

November 2004