Which Agreement is the Best?

Why don’t I just use the residential tenancy agreement provided by the “government” (the Residential Tenancy Branch [RTB])?

The RTB’s tenancy agreement is, of course, an acceptable form to use for tenancies in British Columbia. Unfortunately, it is very basic and does not achieve much in the way of protecting the landlord’s interest.

Why would I use the residential tenancy agreement provided by the “landlord association” (the Rental Owners and Managers Society of BC [ROMS BC]) over the RTB’s version?

ROMS BC has been in existence – with five different names – since 1970. In this time, we have gained experience from thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of different situations. Our collective knowledge has allowed us to successfully create our own comprehensive residential tenancy agreement – approved for use by the BC government. Each clause that our agreement contains has been appropriately vetted to ensure enforceability in all levels of the judicial process. To compare the two agreements: RTB’s version has a total of 16 clauses, while the ROMS BC agreement has 43.

If you make your own agreement, why can’t I?

Theoretically, you could make your own agreement however most “homemade” agreements are found to be invalid. What most people don’t know is that there are many, many rules in the law about how you make your agreement – everything from unconscionable material terms to the size of the font, and everything in between. Creating an agreement that is fully enforceable under the Residential Tenancy Act is a time consuming and difficult task – which we have already done for you!

But your agreement does not have some things I want covered in my agreement…

When we created our tenancy agreement we worked very hard to make it apply to every tenancy (whether it be an apartment, basement suite or single-family home), but we recognize that there are always exceptions to the norm. Your tenancy agreement may need some extra clauses that relate very specifically to your rental unit or property, and we are here to help you with those additional terms. Because adding additional terms is just as dangerous as writing your own agreement, we recommend that you write up what you want to see added, and we will work with you to make it fit.

-- Hunter Boucher and Carly Ludwar