Charlottetown, PE – Housing is a basic need and human right, yet housing—especially affordable housing—is becoming more and more scarce.

Unlawful rent increases cause tenants to pay well beyond what’s acceptable for rent. In one case, a PEI tenant recovered more than $16,500 that had been paid because of an unlawful rent increase. The secrecy attached to rents makes it difficult to know when a rent is lawful or unlawful.

To address this issue, Peter Bevan-Baker, Third Party critic for Housing, Land and Communities, is proposing a new Rental Registry Act. The proposed legislation would require rental unit owners to register their residential rental units in a provincial registry.

This publicly run and publicly available registry would provide the public with an independent method of verifying the lawfulness of rents. It would also provide the policymakers, researchers and the public with rich data to assess the state of rental housing in PEI and to support evidence-based decision-making in housing.

Ahead of the fall sitting of the legislature, the Green caucus is seeking public feedback on this proposed legislation. Islanders are invited to review the proposed legislation.

Public feedback can be submitted online by email to greencaucus@assembly.pe.ca. Submissions will be accepted until 12:00 PM on Friday, October 11th.