Ask Kyle Landlords
I’m a landlord too, and I’ve been through the tribunal more than once. The rules here change often, so every rule below carries the date I covered it. Check the current Residential Tenancy Branch rules before you act.
9 answers from 6 of my videos
It has changed twice recently, so check before you act. When I covered the July 2024 changes, the notice to take a unit back went from two full months to four. In April 2025, the province rolled the notice for a landlord’s own use back to three months, which I felt was a fair middle ground. Check the current Residential Tenancy Branch rules before you serve anything.
Not the way I explained it in April 2025. If your tenant signed a fixed term for a year or 18 months, that term has to be respected, and the landlord’s-use notice rules only come into play once it has rolled to month to month. Check the current Residential Tenancy Branch rules, and talk to a lawyer if your timing is tight.
Only close family. When I covered the rules in August 2024, the Residential Tenancy Branch defined a close family member as your parent, spouse or child, or the parent or child of your spouse. A sibling, niece, aunt or other relative doesn’t qualify, so follow those definitions to a T and check the current rules first.
It can cost you a full year’s rent. Under the 2024 changes I covered, whoever moves in after a landlord’s-use notice had to stay at least 12 months, up from six, and a landlord who isn’t acting in good faith can owe the tenant 12 months of rent. Re-renting at a higher rate when you aren’t selling or moving in is exactly what that penalty is for, so check the current Residential Tenancy Branch rules before you serve notice.
Only by the province’s annual cap. When I covered it in October 2025, the BC government had capped 2025 increases at 3% and set 2026 at 2.3%, so you might raise rent $75 a month while your renewal adds hundreds. Under the 2024 changes, a tenant can also move in someone under 19 without the rent going up. Check the current year’s cap with the Residential Tenancy Branch.
Run the numbersBC real estate calculatorsMortgage payments, transfer tax, closing costs and more, built for British Columbia.Open the calculators →Document everything. Use the Residential Tenancy Branch’s own forms, do a condition inspection when the tenant moves in, and do the same one again when they move out, with everyone signing off. My last two tenants both went to a dispute over damage, and one claim for water-damaged cabinets took about eight months, but because I had documented everything, I got paid.
9:01Hear me say it at 9:016 New BC Rental Rules You Must Know 🤬🤯 | Vancouver Real EstateAugust 2024 · 10:15 long9:28Hear me say it at 9:286 New BC Rental Rules You Must Know 🤬🤯 | Vancouver Real EstateAugust 2024 · 10:15 long
5:36Hear me say it at 5:36Vancouver Landlords Are PANICKING Right Now (HERE'S WHY) | Vancouver Real EstateJune 2025 · 9:10 longIt’s a tougher business than it was. When I looked at it in late 2025 and early 2026, a wave of new purpose-built rentals was arriving just as fewer international students and temporary workers were coming, and for the first time in a decade, tenants had the leverage. That’s why I haven’t touched the rents on my own rentals in a couple of years: keeping a good tenant is worth more than squeezing out an increase.
It can break them. Say you locked in under 2% and renew over 4%: on a $650,000 mortgage, that’s over $1,200 more a month, while the rent cap lets you recover a fraction of it. Even a single month of vacancy can wipe out a year’s profit, so lower your expectations, upgrade the unit or restructure the financing early, or consider selling.
3:00Hear me say it at 3:00Vancouver Landlords Are BROKE (HERE'S WHY)October 2025 · 6:34 long4:17Hear me say it at 4:17Vancouver Landlords Are BROKE (HERE'S WHY)October 2025 · 6:34 longGo deeperMortgage renewals
Not always, but you need to know why you’re buying it. We bought a couple of presale condos so our kids have a place when they head to university: one barely cash flows, and on the other we’re out about $1,000 to $1,500 a month. When I ran what an entry-level home might cost in 20 years, carrying that still costs me less than dipping into my pension and savings to help them. Without a plan like that, run your numbers assuming no rent growth.
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