Following a recent decision in the Alberta Court of Justice, and another at at RTDRS it appears that the longstanding thought that the sky is the limit approach to rent increases is, well, invalid.
In a recent decision issued by the RTDRS, 2023 ABRTDRS 6 TDO Hui, in her decision cited with authority the case of Milner's Aloha v. Jenkins, 2014 ABQB 229. In Milner's a mobile home park attempted to increase the Jenkin's Rent by 300%, The court held that this increase was simply a means of circumventing the Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Act. proscribed reasons for termination of a tenancy, and as a result was nothing more than an attempt to exercise a "loop hole" in the Act and terminate the tenancy. In her decision, TDO Hui, analyzed the identical language between the MHSTA, and the RTA, and found that a rental increase of approximately 33% was invalid as it was retribution for a failed, and inadequate previous notice of rent increase. She cited with authority a very recent decision by The Honourable Mr. Justice Argento, who held in Boisselle v Maple Leaf Property Management Inc., 2024 ABCJ 35, that “A rent increase is invalid where it is not based on the landlord’s increased costs (as initially asserted), but is instead being used to achieve some other purpose, such as a lease termination or the recovery of legal costs”.
So landlord's, beware of your motivations for increasing rent, sometimes it might come back to bit you.