Recorded on: June 24, 2025
Length: 60 minutes
Summary
Lawyers Lisa Mackie and Anil Aggarwal answer questions about how the law in BC applies to roommates living in rental accommodation.
Highlights
In this webinar, you will learn:
Legal status of roommates
How the law in British Columbia applies to roommates, including whether tenant protections apply to roommates. [3:03]
How roommates can use a roommate agreement to protect themselves and which key points the agreement should cover. [5:55]
How the law applies to homestay students. [10:34]
Role of the landlord
Whether a tenant needs their landlord’s consent to take on a roommate and what happens if the tenancy agreement is silent about roommates. [13:34]
Whether a landlord can raise their tenant’s rent — or evict them — if the landlord discovers that the tenant has a roommate. [16:48]
Roommate rights
Whether a roommate is responsible to pay the full rent if their roommate leaves and both roommates are named on the tenancy agreement with the landlord. [20:10]
What rights you have if you moved in as a roommate 10 years ago, the original tenant left five years ago, and your name was never officially added to the tenancy agreement. [22:30]
Whether your roommate, the only tenant named on the tenancy agreement with the landlord, can stop you from having your cousin stay with you for a month. [25:09]
Whether your roommate, the only named tenant named on the tenancy agreement, can make you leave so her boyfriend can move in. [27:41]
Whether your roommate, the only named tenant named on the tenancy agreement, can double your rent a year after you moved in. [29:00]
Dealing with a rogue roommate
Whether you can evict a roommate who has stopped paying rent and refuses to leave — and how much notice you must give — when you’re the only person named on the tenancy agreement. [30:47]
Whether you can change the locks and how to deal with stuff that was left behind if your roommate disappears without leaving money for rent. [34:00]
Whether you’re responsible to the landlord for damage your roommate caused — like flushing things down the toilet and damaging the pipes — when you’re the only tenant named on the tenancy agreement, and whether you can recover the cost from your roommate. [36:24]
Dispute resolution
Tips for speaking with your roommate about paying their rent on time without things getting too awkward. [38:58]
Where to take your dispute with your roommate — for example, to the Residential Tenancy Branch, the Civil Resolution Tribunal, or the Human Rights Tribunal — when you have tried to evict them, they won’t leave, and you need to escalate things. [40:40]
Live questions
Where you have asked your roommate to leave and they refuse to do so, what to ask for in going to the Civil Resolution Tribunal or court. [43:00]
Whether a landlord sharing a kitchen with their tenant would be considered a roommate situation, and what protections would apply. [44:09]
Your rights if a roommate (who is on the tenancy agreement with the landlord) evicts you based on having a family member move in. [45:28]
Whether an occupant gets evicted automatically when the landlord evicts a tenant. [47:47]
Whether roommates can create a contingency fund that they both contribute to, in case one of them leaves on short notice. [48:19]
Where a strata unit owner fails to reveal to a tenant the strata bylaws and rules (through a form K), whether the tenant is still bound by the strata bylaws and rules, and whether the tenant can end the tenancy early. [48:44]
Where a lease says there can't be anyone new living in the unit, whether that includes a new baby. [50:29]
Whether discrimination laws apply to screening for rooms for rent in a home with a shared kitchen or bathroom. [51:59]
Whether a landlord can sign a separate rental agreement with each roommate, and if so, the pros and cons for the roommates and for the landlord. [53:40]
Featuring
Lisa Mackie
Lisa Mackie is a lawyer at Alexander Holburn and a member of the firm’s insurance and real estate practices. She is the leader of the strata property practice group and the residential tenancy law practice group. Her primary areas of practice are strata property law and residential tenancy law.
Anil Aggarwal
Anil is a lawyer in the insurance, strata property and residential tenancy groups at Alexander Holburn. In his litigation-based practice, he has appeared before all levels of court in BC as well as various tribunals, including the Civil Resolution Tribunal and the Residential Tenancy Branch. Anil is also a visiting professor for Simon Fraser University’s Masters in Applied Legal Studies Program, where he lectures on property law.
Attendee feedback
“This is a great topic.”
“Great presentation, fantastic host and presenters.”
“Incredibly informative workshop. … I thought the two lawyers were very good at clearly explaining and answering each question. It was easy to absorb the information as it was presented in a very simple and understandable way. I had some familiarity with tenancy rights and RTB, but I still learned a lot of new information which is always amazing.”
“Big thank you to you all. This was a perfect webinar. The host and panelists are just awesome.”
“It was very helpful and particularly necessary in this province with so many areas experiencing a housing crisis. … Not only is this information that everyone should know, I think it's particularly important to be impressing upon people the importance of written agreements, and de-stigmatizing / normalizing it. Thank you!”
"The host and presenters were super awesome, provided great info in a super clear way, and were super professional."
“Thanks so much for the webinar and information provided! ❤️”
“Thank you for another very informative webinar. We appreciate you so much. See you next time. Have a great summer, everyone. Stay cool!”
Additional resources
From People’s Law School:
Can my roommate raise my rent on me? I’m not on the tenancy agreement.
I live with roommates. One of them wants me out. Can they evict me?
As a roommate in a rental unit, how much notice am I entitled to get on being evicted?
What happens when there are two tenants on a tenancy agreement and one of them leaves?
From Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre:
Also:
Residential Tenancy Act, section 4: who the act does not apply to
Strata Property Act, section 146: a landlord in a strata must give bylaws and rules to a tenant
Human Rights Code, section 4: the code prevails if there is a conflict between the code and any other law