Rent Increases for 2024 at the Rockhill

At a meeting with the Rockhill administration, the RTC obtained the following information:

"Minto sends rent increase notices from 3 to 6 months before the end of the leases. The administration determines a single rate for all apartments, taking into account the formula documented on the TAL website. The Ottawa team determines the rate and sends the notifications by bailiff.

Minto is open to negociating the increase with the tenants by appointment. Since the tenant's response must be provided within a month after receiving the increase notification (30 days) it is recommended to request an appointment at the earliest opportunity.

The state of the dwelling isn't one of the criterias that the TAL uses to determine the increase, according to the "règlement sur les critères de fixation de loyer". The administration is open to discuss it but the matter of rental increase is one of long term investment. In general this is the kind of question that should be resolved during the year. Therefore we will review case by case. "

-- Carmelo Contarini, Directeur Régional, Minto

Last week a Minto representative confirmed that the increases for the leases starting in May had been sent at the end of January with an increase of 4.5% so this is likely to be the same number for the rest.

The TAL proposes a calculation incorporating the building revenue, taxes, insurance, cost of energy, cost of maintance and repaires to determine a fair increase. (See the website of the TAL for an explanation of the user of the Consumer Price Index to determine the component increases). However it is often impossible for a tenant to obtain the necessary numbers such as revenues and expenses which makes the evaluation difficult to perform.

A spreadsheet has been prepared with the informations provided by the Minto quarterly reports and made available to all that are interested in doing this calculation. More information on how to obtain the other inputs yourself will be forthcoming shortly.

M. Contarini informed us that he would be receiving the increase soon and will inform us right away. After bringing up the difficulty for a tenant to estimate all of the numbers required in the formula and showing him our spreadsheet prepared with the publicly available information, M. Contarini agreed to make public the numbers required for the 2024 calculation, and which would eventually be used if the increase were contested, so that everyone could make up their own analysis as to whether the increase was reasonable.

A lessor is not obliged to share this type of information. Usually they are only provided after having refused the increase and started the fixation process. In 2024, only those that refused the increases received the information, as prescribed by law. Having these informations during this renewal period will allow us to make a better informed decision, whether one finds the increase reasonable or not.