When Kirsten Parnell went to sign a lease for a one-bedroom apartment in Halifax two weeks ago, she thought her exhausting search for a place to live was over. She was wrong.
Before securing the apartment, Parnell was asked to provide a co-signer and pay the rent for the first and last month in addition to a damage deposit. That totaled $ 2,750 and he would have almost emptied his savings account.
She was so desperate that she initially considered paying the money in the face of the Nova Scotia housing crisis and the difficulties of finding an affordable one bedroom apartment in Halifax.
But he did some research and found that the rental company’s application was illegal.
“In fact, I waited until I got to the appointment to sign the lease so I could talk about it face to face,” Parnell said. “Then they told me to pay them the funds illegally or they denied me the apartment.”
He left without a signed lease and no apartment.
According to the Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, what happened to Parnell is not an isolated incident.
“Few options”
Mark Culligan, a community service legal worker, said a homeowner asking for an illegal application fee is common and that the housing crisis is making it worse.
“A lot of the companies that do this have been doing this for a long time,” Culligan said. “I think part of what we’re seeing now is that people are more desperate, so they put up with it in a way that they may not have done before, because there are few options.”
Parnell was forced to live with his family.
“It’s heartbreaking because I know I’m back in first place,” he said. “And right now there are thousands of people in Halifax looking for apartments and they’re in the same situation as me.”
Parnell said that before finding the apartment in Wedgewood Court, he spent weeks requesting two or three apartments a day. (David Laughlin / CBC)
Parnell said the search for housing is exhausting, in addition to working full-time.
“I spend hours a day online bouncing from different search engines, Kijiji, Facebook market, even going to specific pages of rental companies and contacting me with phone calls, emails, text messages, any something you can do to contact someone who may have an apartment available. “she said.
No appeal
According to the Residential Leases Act, “No landlord may demand, accept or receive from a tenant as a security deposit an amount of money … greater than half of the monthly rent.”
Knowing this, Parnell asked the Board of Residential Leases for help, but was told he had no choice.
“Because I didn’t pay [the landlord] no funds, nor did I sign any documents to establish a tenant-landlord relationship, they told me they would do nothing, “he said.
Dalhousie Legal Aid told him the same thing.
“It’s very difficult to defend your rights as a tenant when you’re faced with these kinds of application fees,” Culligan said.
“If you actually pay it and sign a lease … maybe you can make a claim to try to get the money back. But if you’re asked to pay these application fees and say no, there’s really no significant protection for you because your landlord can only say, “Hey, I’ll rent it to someone else.”
Mark Culligan of the Dalhousie Legal Aid Service said he receives many calls from tenants who are being asked to pay illegal application fees. (David Laughlin / CBC)
Culligan said there have been calls for some sort of application division within residential rents for years.
“And that hasn’t been a priority in the past,” he said. “But, frankly, there is a fairly extensive jurisprudence that goes back many years, saying repeatedly that these … practices are illegal.”
The provincial department in charge of the Residential Leases Board is the Nova Scotia Department of Services and Home Services.
“Asking a tenant to pay their first and last months’ rent is not allowed,” said Blaise Theriault, a spokeswoman for the department. “If the landlord asks a tenant to do something and they think it’s wrong, they should seek independent legal advice and / or contact a legal aid company.”
Theriault said his department is “aware of interest in the application.”
“[We] they are always looking for opportunities to strengthen the Residential Rental Act, while balancing the needs of both tenants and landlords, ”he said.
The WM Fares Group office on Joseph Howe Drive in Halifax. (David Laughlin / CBC)
Halifax’s property management company, WM Fares Group, is the owner of Wedgewood Court, where Parnell applied for the lease. Wadih Fares, president of the company, told CBC News that it is not the company’s standard policy to ask for rent for the first and last months as a deposit, but that it uses the practice in certain circumstances.
“If a potential tenant does not comply with the credit check, our property managers, in order to accommodate the applicant, will file a lawsuit and may waive the credit requirement and request more security,” Fares said. “This is done to help the applicant secure accommodation … in the current high demand for rental.”
Parnell said he tried to contact Fares twice, but his voice messages were not answered.
He said he wants the Residential Leases Act to be more enforceable, but in the meantime he hopes his story can help other tenants.
“I want people to know that this shouldn’t happen,” he said. “I hope … that something is done about it and that people can rent apartments in a fair way and have a fair chance.”