Renoviction: What are your rights?

Renters’ rights in the face of renoviction were the focus of a virtual town hall in Waterloo Region Thursday evening.

A renoviction is when a landlord evicts a tenant to a repair or make renovations to a unit.

Maribel Jagorin, an advocate who is facing renoviction from her Kitchener apartment, was one of the event’s speakers.

“I'm very scared. We feel trapped in this situation,” Jagorin said. “We are being kicked out of homes and the possibility of being renovicted and thrown out on the streets in the middle of this housing crisis. It is horrific to imagine that nothing is out there for us if we lose our homes.”

Waterloo regional councillor Rob Deutschmann hosted the meeting along with a panel of industry experts.

The goal was to give renters a better understanding of their rights when faced with a similar situation.

“They have the right to be notified by the landlord so they can move back into the unit once the renovations are done,” said Shannon Down, executive director of WR Community Legal Services. “The problem with that is that it requires good faith in the part of the landlord. So the landlord has to follow through with that and if they don't then it’s really up to the tenant to enforce their rights through bringing an application, which could takes months and months to be heard at the landlord tenant board.”

Another aspect of the meeting was raising awareness of local supports, including eviction prevention work that’s being done by the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region.