Tenants encouraged to know their rights when a rental property goes up for sale

An East Vancouver woman has a warning for renters whose landlords decide to list their home for sale.

An East Vancouver woman has a warning for other renters – make sure you know your rights before signing any documents if the property you live in goes up for sale.

Crystal Ehresman has been renting a whole house on East 38th Avenue and living there with her 12-year-old child for more than 11 years.

“If it was just me, I could eat the mistake, right?” she said in an interview with CTV News. “But when it involves your child and their well-being...I want her to still be able to live comfortably.”

The mistake in this case was signing a document known as a Mutual Agreement to End a Tenancy.

Ehresman’s rental home recently sold.

She said the Realtor told her she would have to move one way or another and offered an extra month of free rent if she signed the document.

Had she not agreed to mutually end the tenancy, and if the new owner continues to use the home as a rental property – she would have been entitled to keep living there under the terms of her existing rental agreement.

Reached by phone, the selling agent told CTV News asking tenants to mutually agree to end their tenancy is pretty standard practice.

“She had enough time to read the document,” Josh Zheng said. “On the top of the document it says very clearly that you don’t have any obligation to sign. But she agreed to the terms and she agreed to sign it.”

He said one condition of the pending sale of the house was that it be vacant at the time the new owner takes possession.

Robert Patterson, a lawyer with the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre encourages renters to consult with his organization or other tenant’s rights advocates before signing anything.

Renters, he said, have some power in real estate transactions where the sale of the property is contingent on it being vacant for the new owners.

“In situations like that, if a tenant wants to give up their home, they have a significant amount of leverage in that situation if they take the time to understand their rights and understand the situation they’re in,” Patterson said.

In situations like Ehresman’s where an agreement is already signed, the only option is to appeal to the Residential Tenancy Branch. However, the onus would be on her to prove deception or coercion.

Ehresman told CTV News she is still considering her options ahead of the agreed upon Aug. 31 move-out date.

She is prepared to move if she must but worries she will have a hard time finding a suitable place in her price range.

“I know I will have to work more in order to afford any other place. It’ll be inevitable,” Ehresman said. “There will be less time for my child.”