On June 28, 2018, the TRU Students’ Union made a submission to the provincial government’s Rental Housing Task Force asking that students living in housing owned by post-secondary institutions are protected by the BC Residential Tenancy Act. 

Currently, the Act states that “living accommodation owned or operated by an educational institution and provided by that institution to its students or employees” is exempted and the Act does not apply to these facilities. This means that the tenants protections provided by the Act, including minimum standards for security deposits, rental increases, evictions, entry into rental units, repairs and maintenance, etc., are not extended to students in residences. 

Unfortunately, this means that residence housing providers may have business practices and behaviour that would otherwise be illegal if they were providing housing to non-students.

TRUSU believes that students should have the same protections and responsibilities under the law as everyone else, and that applying the Residential Tenancy Act to post-secondary residences is critical to achieve that goal. 

For more information about the BC Rental Housing Task Force, or to have your say on rental housing issues, visit the government’s website here.

Click here to download a copy of our submission to the provincial government.

For more information, contact:

About the Equity Committee

The TRUSU Equity Committee is a group of eight elected and appointed students who work to raise awareness about the systemic oppression of marginalized groups in society, and to challenge that oppression on campus.