Fighting a rent increase for herself and neighbours through B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch has taken Nanaimo tenant and housing activist Dianne Varga years of effort, generated a pile of paper and, in her view, achieved nothing.

“I feel like tenants have been asked to do a dance with the RTB,” she said. “As lead tenant I’ve followed all the dance steps for two years, but it hasn’t mattered one iota.”

Such disputes have become common since the B.C. government introduced a policy five years ago allowing landlords to apply for extra rent increases to cover the costs of repairs or renovations.

For eligible work, landlords can raise rents by up to three per cent each year for three years. The increases are on top of other increases allowed under B.C.’s rent controls and are permanent, continuing after the repairs are paid for.

At the four-storey Sand Dollar Manor where Varga lives, the question is whether the $73,000 cost of a new elevator should be paid for by tenants of the 73 units or by the building’s owner. Built in 1973, the apartment block at 450 Stewart Ave. near Nanaimo’s harbour is typical of its era, similar in style and age to many in communities throughout the province.

The Residential Tenancy Branch has decided in the owner’s favour twice. The second ruling, in March, was necessary because the B.C. Supreme Court sent the initial decision back to the RTB for reconsideration after finding the branch’s process had been “manifestly unfair” to tenants the first time around due to “the lack of disclosure to the petitioners of evidence that was of direct relevance to material and critical aspects of the decision.”