The Yukon government has released long-awaited regulations for the new Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

The regulations were signed by Commissioner Doug Phillips last Friday, and will come into effect, along with the new act, on Jan. 1, 2016.

The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act was introduced in 2012 to replace the 2002 act, but it had not come into effect pending the regulations.

Despite communications between the Star and the Department of Community Services earlier this week about the legislation, the department did not reveal the new regulations had been completed.

After inquiries were made to Community Services this morning, the department released an announcement.

“This act promotes a healthy private rental market in Yukon by balancing the interests of landlords and tenants and will serve both well,” Community Services Minister Currie Dixon said in the statement.

Yukon opposition parties and local housing advocates have questioned the three-year wait for the regulations.

Shane Hickey, director of employment standards and residential tenancies, said in an interview this morning that public input and consultation had to take place before they could be crafted.

“The issue around developing the legislation was very complex,” he said.

“It was important to take the time to ensure it was developed properly in order to administer it.”

The new regulations set out minimum rental standards to “ensure rental units and residential properties are safe, sanitary and fit for human habitation.”

They mandate that every bedroom must have a window that provides safe passage out of the building; bathrooms must meet “reasonable health and safety standards”; landlords must provide rental units with sufficient ventilation in order to prevent damage or moisture that leads to rot or mildew; and landlords must provide units free from infestations, and take appropriate action to exterminate if they occur.

Hickey said the minimum standards were added for clarity.

“The whole point of modernizing the legislation was to make it easier for both landlords and tenants to interpret, as well as to put the safety issue out there,” he said.

“That was our main concern in drafting the minimum rental standards – addressing the safety of tenants and creating clarity for what is expected of landlords.”

Under the old legislation, hotels are not regulated as a residential tenancy, meaning people living month-to-month in hotels, often while on social assistance, have no tenant rights.

In the new act, the definition of a “residential property” does include hotels. But the regulations stipulate that the new legislation does not apply to hotel occupancies shorter than six months.

For people living in hotels longer-term, this will provide them with minimum rental standards and other coverage they didn’t have before.

But many people living in hotels while on social assistance are evicted in the spring, before tourist season, and not allowed to return until the fall or winter.

This means they may not be living in the hotels for a full six months, so the new legislation won’t apply to them.

Wenda Bradley, executive director of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Society Yukon, said some of the organization’s clients have resided in hotels in the past. Stays are usually shorter than six months, she said this morning. Often, they’ll be evicted in April or May.

“It is a last resort for us ... but it’s better than being on the street,” she said. “A hotel isn’t a home, or it shouldn’t be in our society.”

This clause is also a concern for the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition (YAPC), co-chair Bill Thomas said today.

“Things can really, really worsen, and to be there for six months before you can do something is .... I don’t think it’s the most optimal situation,” he said.

Hickey said that for stays shorter than six months, the Hotels and Tourist Establishments Act applies.

The new legislation limits rent increases to once per year, and landlords must give three months’ notice before an increase.

There is, however, no cap on how much rents can be increased from year to year.

Hickey said during the public consultation period, landlords and tenants had mixed feelings about rent controls.

No cap was imposed in order to allow landlords to plan their finances to deal with rising costs, inflation, interest rates and renovations, states an overview of the legislation produced by Community Services.

The new legislation also creates a new residential tenancies office to deal with landlord-tenant disputes.

“The intent for any administrative process is obviously, in one part, to improve the timelines and services delivered to the public,” said Hickey.

“The other avenue is to reduce the burdens placed on the courts.”

He will begin accepting complaints as of Jan. 1.

A problem the YAPC sees, though, is the $50 fee required to take a dispute to the residential tenancies office. For low-income tenants, this could deter them from pursuing a complaint, Thomas said.

Overall, though, the new legislation creates more clarity regarding the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords, Thomas said.

“That’s a good thing.”

Kevin Barr, the NDP’s Community Services critic, said he was displeased to see that the new legislation does not set a cap on rent increases and that no-cause evictions are still permitted.

Both the 2002 act and the incoming version allow landlords to evict tenants for breaches of a tenancy agreement, like not paying rent or conducting illegal activity on the property.

But laws in other jurisdictions also specify circumstances in which a landlord can evict a tenant even if he or she hasn’t broken any rules, such as home renovation or a family member moving in.

This cause-for-eviction clause doesn’t exist in the Yukon legislation.