General Information
A life lease is a specific kind of written tenancy agreement. Under a life lease, a tenant pays an entrance fee for a rental unit. A life lease can be for the life of the tenant or for a specific term (for example: 50 years). The tenant also pays rent each month. The amount of rent will vary depending on how much entrance fee the tenant paid and their proportionate share of operating costs.
If a tenant enters into a life lease, do they own their unit?
No. When a person lives in a life lease unit, they are a tenant. They don’t own their unit or any part of the life lease complex. They have the right to occupy the unit for the time prescribed in their life lease.
Does a life lease tenant have any say in how the complex is run?
Since a life lease tenant doesn’t own their unit, they don’t generally participate in managing the complex. A landlord of any life lease complex must have an annual meeting for all tenants. At the annual meeting the tenants may ask questions and make comments.
Tenants of a non-profit life lease complex may select one or two tenant representatives to attend the landlord’s board meetings. Tenant representatives have the right to place matters on the agenda and to participate in meetings. A landlord is required to give the tenant representatives a copy of any bylaws as well as notice of the meetings. The Life Leases Act does not require that tenant representatives be appointed as directors, but the Act does not prevent tenants from serving as directors, with voting rights, if the landlord agrees. When the board is discussing confidential matters involving staff or individual tenants, the landlord may exclude the tenant representatives from that part of the board meeting. Tenant representatives are entitled to receive minutes of board meetings and to share the information with other tenants. The landlord may exclude references to confidential matters involving staff or individual tenants from the minutes.
Does a landlord have to register anything to show that there are life leases in a building?
To show that there are life lease tenancies in a building, a landlord must register a Notice of Life Lease against the land title for the property. The landlord registers the notice with the Land Titles Office in the district where the complex is located. They must register this notice within 60 days of the occupancy date of the complex.
What does the Residential Tenancies Branch do?
The Residential Tenancies Branch:
- gives landlords and tenants information on their rights and responsibilities under The Life Leases Act and The Residential Tenancies Act
- helps landlord and tenants solve problems between them; this is called mediation
- makes decisions such as:
- whether or not a tenant can cancel their life lease if the landlord doesn’t provide a service or feature that was promised
- how much a landlord can increase rent
- whether or not a tenant has to move out
- whether or not a landlord can keep some or all of a tenant’s security deposit and interest
- whether or not a landlord can keep all or part of an entrance fee to cover things such as rent arrears or damage, and if so, how much the landlord may keep.
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