Residential Tenancy Act – Amendments

VIEW SLIDE PRESENTATION

The Residential Tenancy Modernization Act

A Private Member's Bill by Brad Trivers, MLA District 18 Rustico-Emerald

Consultation Draft V1.0 - October 6, 2025

For consultation purposes only. Parliamentary Counsel has not reviewed.

Artificial Intelligence was used in the creation of this document.

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Thanks to all who have provided feedback so far. The Residential Tenancy Modernization Act is the next version of a proposal to build a rental framework that is fair for tenants, viable for landlords, and sustainable for Prince Edward Island.

Read the Full Proposal (PDF) View Current RTA (PDF) View Current Regulations (PDF)

UPCOMING IN-PERSON PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS

  • Tuesday October 14, 2025: 7:00pm to 9:00pm @ Cavendish Farms Wellness Centre, 21 Sullivan Drive, Montague; (Montague rink)
  • Thursday October 16, 2025: 7:00pm to 9:00pm @ Cavendish Farms Community Events Centre, 7085 PE-12, Tyne Valley; (Tyne Valley rink)

ONLINE CALCULATORS

Above-Guideline Increase (AGI) – Calculator Allowed Rent Increase Vacancy – Calculator

A Path Beyond Polarization

Prince Edward Island is facing a housing crisis with low vacancy rates and rising costs. This puts immense pressure on both tenants and landlords. The proposed "Residential Tenancy Modernization Act" aims to create a fair, sustainable, and modern rental system for everyone.

It’s designed as a "grand bargain"—a single, integrated package that links new economic flexibilities for landlords directly to stronger protections, transparency, and accountability for tenants.

The goal is to move beyond a polarized debate and build a stable rental market that works for all Islanders.

The Grand Bargain at a Glance

This Act creates a web of legislative dependencies, where the fairness of one change depends on another. New landlord flexibilities are only possible with full compliance on transparency and tenant protection.

For Tenants: Protections & Transparency

  • Mandatory Rental Registry to verify lawful rent.
  • Proactive Landlord Licensing based on health and safety standards.
  • Best-in-Class Eviction Integrity with a mandatory 12-month rent penalty for bad-faith evictions.
  • Enhanced Maintenance Standards with powerful enforcement.
  • Independent, Publicly Funded Advisors for information and support.

For Landlords: Viability & Efficiency

  • Regulated Vacancy Rent Adjustment to help cover costs.
  • Predictable Above-Guideline Increase (AGI) process.
  • Centralized Management of Abandoned Property to reduce liability.
  • Clearer Rules for damage, repairs, and late rent to reduce disputes.
  • A More Efficient Dispute Resolution System to reduce delays.

Part I: Governance and Administration 🏛️

What's Changing?

  • Independent Advisor Offices: Establishes publicly funded and independent advisors for both tenants and landlords to provide information and advocacy.
  • Specialized Appeal Panel: Creates a new Residential Tenancy Appeal Panel at IRAC with trained members and a 90-day decision deadline to ensure appeals are handled efficiently and consistently.
  • Office of Residential Tenancy Services (ORTS): Proposes a standalone office to administer the Act, separating it from the appeal function to avoid conflicts of interest.
  • Annual Reporting: The Director must submit a public annual report with key statistics, increasing transparency.

Why It Matters

These changes aim to restore public confidence in the dispute resolution system by making it more transparent, accountable, and balanced. Both tenants and landlords will have legislated access to independent advice, ensuring a more level playing field.

Part II: Rental Registry and Licensing ✅

What's Changing?

  • Mandatory Rental Registry: All landlords must register their rental units and lawful rent. A rent increase notice is void if the unit is not registered.
  • Proactive Landlord Licensing: Landlords must obtain a license, conditional on meeting health, safety, and insurance standards. The license can be suspended for non-compliance.

Why It Matters

This shifts the system from reactive to proactive. The registry empowers tenants to verify their rent is lawful, while licensing ensures a clear baseline of safety and professionalism in the rental market before a problem arises.

Part III: Rent Setting and Adjustments 💰

What's Changing?

  • Regulated Vacancy Rent Adjustment: Between tenancies, landlords can adjust rent to a "viability-based cap" (not the open market rate), calculated based on the property's assessed value. This is strictly conditional on being registered.
  • Standardized AGIs: The subjective "reasonable return on investment" factor is replaced with a predictable, calculator-based system for above-guideline increases.
  • Facilitating Green Upgrades: Creates a clear process for landlords to convert from oil heat to electric heat pumps.

Why It Matters

This is the core of the "grand bargain." It addresses landlord concerns about financial viability while linking that flexibility directly to new transparency and tenant-protection measures. The AGI process becomes more transparent and is counter-balanced by powerful new protections against bad-faith evictions (see Part VI).

Part IV: Maintenance, Repairs, and Safety 🛠️

What's Changing?

  • Strengthened Duty to Repair: Landlords must keep a property in a "good state of repair and fit for habitation."
  • Clear Repair Timelines: Establishes tiered timelines: 24 hours for emergencies, 7 days for urgent issues, and 14 days for non-urgent issues.
  • Stay of Rent Increases: A powerful enforcement tool. Any rent increase is automatically paused if there is an outstanding maintenance order.
  • Expedited Hearings: A "fast lane" for urgent repair and access issues.

Why It Matters

These reforms provide a direct financial incentive for landlords to perform repairs promptly. Tenants get a clear and swift process for addressing maintenance issues, and their right to a well-maintained home is strengthened.

Part V: Tenancy Management and Disputes 🤝

What's Changing?

  • Clearer Definitions: Provides statutory definitions for "reasonable wear and tear," "undue damage," and "repeatedly late rent."
  • Centralized Management of Abandoned Property: The Director's office, not individual landlords, will now manage belongings left behind by former tenants.
  • "Damage-First" Security Deposit Allocation: When there are both rent arrears and damage, the deposit is allocated to repairs first.

Why It Matters

Clearer rules reduce disputes before they start. Centralizing the abandoned property process makes it more efficient and less stressful for both landlords and former tenants.

Part VI: Terminations and Eviction Integrity ⚖️

What's Changing?

  • Affidavit for Personal-Use Evictions: Landlords must provide a sworn affidavit attesting to their good-faith intention to occupy the unit.
  • Post-Use Declaration & Integrity Window: Landlords must file a mandatory "Post-Use Declaration" with evidence of occupancy. If they re-rent or sell within a 24-month window without occupying the unit for 12 months, bad faith is presumed.
  • Mandatory 12-Month Rent Penalty: If bad faith is presumed, the Director shall order the landlord to pay the former tenant statutory damages equal to 12 months' rent.
  • Proactive Enforcement: The Director can launch an investigation and issue this penalty on their own initiative.

Why It Matters

This creates one of the strongest anti-eviction-fraud regimes in Canada. It protects tenants from being unfairly displaced and ensures that personal-use evictions are genuine, or else very costly for those who abuse the system.

For questions or to provide feedback on this private member's bill, please contact:

Brad Trivers, MLA District 18 Rustico-Emerald

COMING SOON: Online Feedback (Google Form)

bgtriversmla@assembly.pe.ca

902-368-4360

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HISTORY

  • October 6, 2025: Revised amendments released as “The Residential Tenancy Modernization Act” for public consultation.
  • September 2, 2025: Public consultation held from 7:00pm to 9:00pm @ Credit Union Place, 511 Notre Dame Street, Summerside.
  • September 3, 2025: Public consultation held from 6:00pm to 8:00pm @ Charlottetown Library Learning Centre, 100-97 Queen Street, Charlottetown.
  • August 28, 2025: Comprehensive proposed amendments to the RTA released for public consultation, and online feedback form published for feedback.
  • September 10, 2024: Private Members Bill (PMB) consultation draft released by Brad Trivers to amend the RTA to allow landlords to increase the rent on vacant rental units.
  • September 4, 2024: RRAP presents to the Standing Committee on Health and Social Development with their request for RTA amendments (see RRAP presentation here). The first of the RRAP “3 Critical Amendments” is “Housing providers must be able to set rental rates on voluntary tenant turnover. (Rent is tied to the unit, and not the tenant)“.
  • July 2, 2024: PEI Fight for Affordable Housing send letter to Standing Committee on Health and Social Development with top areas of concern relative to a review of the Residential Tenancy Act. The second of six concerns was:
    • “Vacancy Control & the Need for a Rent Registry – We are concerned about statements by the Landlords’ Association that they would like the Act to provide a legal way of increasing rents when new tenants move in. Affordability is already a serious issue for tenants and will become disastrous, should vacancy be allowed to be a factor in
      determining rent increases. We have heard from tenants who, upon moving into a new apartment, have been charged higher rents than allowable. We continue to advocate for a public rent registry.“
  • June 3, 2024: Residential Rental Association of PEI (RRAP) sends letter to Standing Committee on Health and Social Development with key issues being faced by Island housing providers. The top two issues were:
    • “1. Housing providers must be able to set rental rates that run with the tenant, based on the rental agreement, and not with the rental unit.
    • 2. Housing providers must be able to set reasonable rental rates in existing vacant units.“
  • May 2024: [CBC news article] After one year in place, both tenant and landlord groups call for changes to the RTA. A key priority of landlord groups is the ability to increase rent on vacant rental units: “The landlords say they want the freedom to increase rents to any level after tenants have left a unit, before the new ones move in. They say P.E.I. is the only province in Canada that doesn’t allow that, since the maximum rent increases in this province are tied to the property, not to the tenant.“
  • April 2023: Rob Lantz named new Minister of Housing, Land & Communities. New RTA proclaimed.
  • November 3, 2022: New Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) passed in legislative assembly without the ability for landlords to reset rent on vacant rental units. It also included a zero percent rental increase for the current year, contrary to the IRAC recommendation for 10.8% (heated) and 5.2% (unheated). See [CBC news article from November 15, 2022]: “the government considered about 250 written submissions, as well as consultations with the public and landlord and tenants’ rights groups“, and “A group representing Island landlords expressed frustration, saying they had not been consulted and a zero per cent rental increase cap would be unsustainable given P.E.I.’s record-breaking rate of inflation. The landlords said the cap might even force some people to sell their rental units altogether.“.
  • July 2022: Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) order LR22-54 published establishing the allowable rent increase for 2023 at 10.8% for rentals where heat included and furnace oil or petroleum source used, and 5.2% for rentals where heat not included. View table of IRAC Allowable Rent Increases since 1989 here.
  • July 2022: Brad Trivers shuffled out of cabinet and Matthew MacKay becomes Minister of Social Development & Housing.
  • April 2020 through July 2022: Clear feedback from landlords during consultations that the ability to reset rent on vacant rental units is a top priority in a new Residential Tenancy Act.
  • February 2021: Cabinet shuffle, and Brad Trivers becomes Minister of Social Development & Housing taking the responsibility for the Rental of Residential Properties Act and new Residential Tenancy Act with him. Government policy expertise is developed in-house for residential rentals, as part of the Housing portfolio.
  • March 2020: The COVID pandemic hits. This significantly impacts the ability for in-person public consultations.
  • March 2020: [Saltwire Network news article] Islanders are encouraged to provide feedback by the end of March through written submissions by March 20 or through an online survey from March 3 to 20. Public consultation sessions are scheduled in Alberton, Summerside, Montague, and Charlottetown.
  • Winter 2020: Consultation draft of new Residential Tenancy Act completed.
  • Summer 2019: Third party lawyer hired to draft a replacement for the thirty-year-old Rental of Residential Properties Act.
  • May 2019: Brad Trivers appointed to cabinet as Minister of Education & Lifelong Learning – responsible for IRAC and therefore the Rental of Residential Properties Act. This is done purposefully to ensure no conflict of interest with IRAC, and a hands-off policy is encouraged for Department of Education & Lifelong Learning. No policy expertise exists in-house for the Rental of Residential Properties Act, and Clerk of Executive Council manages legislation through relationship with IRAC.