BC Tenancy Agreement and Rent Rules 2026

• One of each per unit. A landlord collects one security deposit and one pet damage deposit for the tenancy, regardless of how many pets live there.
• 30 days to pay. The tenant has 30 days from the day the deposit is required under the agreement to hand it over.
• A pet damage deposit is a deposit, not a fee. It is held and returned under the same rules as the security deposit.
• Both belong on the agreement. Record the amounts and the dates paid on the RTB-1 so nobody is reconstructing them from memory two years later.

Get the deposits and the dates onto the written agreement at the start. Whether a landlord can claim against a deposit at all when the tenancy ends is decided largely by paperwork created in the first week, not by what happened in the last one.

The 2026 Rent Increase Rules

The maximum allowable rent increase in British Columbia for 2026 is 2.3%, down from 3% in 2025. The figure is tied to inflation and the province resets it each year, so a percentage you read in an older article is probably wrong.

• 2.3% is a ceiling, not a target. A landlord can raise the rent by less, and cannot go above it without an order from an arbitrator.
• Once per 12 months. One increase per 12-month period, counted from the last increase or from the start of the tenancy.
• Three full months of written notice. The period is three whole months, so an increase served part-way through a month takes effect later than most landlords assume.
• It has to be on the RTB Notice of Rent Increase. The residential form is RTB-7. An increase announced by email, by text, or on a homemade letter is not a valid notice.

The 12-month clock belongs to the tenancy, not to the calendar or the owner. Buying the property does not reset it and neither does a change of property manager. If the tenant's last increase was five months ago, the next one is seven months away and capped at 2.3%. When a tenancy ends and a new tenant moves in, the landlord sets the starting rent freely. The cap governs increases inside an ongoing tenancy.

Manufactured Home Park Tenancies

Renting a pad in a manufactured home park in BC follows the same 2.3% cap for 2026. Park landlords can add a proportional amount for changes in local government levies and regulated utility fees, which is the one place the province allows a lawful increase above the headline number. The notice goes on the manufactured home site form, RTB-11, rather than the residential RTB-7. Owners of the homes themselves are landlords in one direction and tenants in the other, so it pays to read both sets of rules.

Where the Rent Increase Rules Do Not Apply

The annual cap covers residential tenancies under the Residential Tenancy Act. Several kinds of housing sit outside it, and investors buying into these categories should not price them off the 2.3% figure.

• Commercial tenancies. Retail, office, and industrial leases are governed by the lease itself.
• Non-profit housing with rent geared to income. Rent moves with the household's income instead of an annual percentage.
• Co-operative housing. Members hold an interest in the co-op rather than a tenancy under the Act.
• Some assisted-living facilities. Coverage depends on the services provided, so confirm the status of the specific facility rather than assuming.

Returning the Deposit When the Tenancy Ends

This is where BC landlords lose money on technicalities rather than on the merits. The Act gives the landlord 15 days from the later of two dates, the day the tenancy ends or the day the tenant provides a forwarding address in writing, to either return the deposits in full or apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch to keep some of them.

• Miss the 15 days and the deposit can be doubled. A tenant can apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch, and the landlord may be ordered to pay double the amount of the deposits.
• The tenant has up to a year to give the forwarding address. The 15-day clock does not start until that address arrives in writing, so a deposit obligation can sit open long after the keys come back.
• No condition inspection, no claim for damage. A landlord who does not complete the move-in and move-out inspections on the Condition Inspection Report, form RTB-27, and give the tenant a copy extinguishes the right to claim against the deposits for damage under sections 24 and 36 of the Act.
• Offer at least two chances to inspect at move-out. One missed appointment is not grounds to skip the inspection and still claim.

Unpaid rent is the exception. A landlord can still claim against the deposits for rent owing even where the inspections were not done properly, but the 15-day application deadline applies just the same, and a late application risks the doubling.

What Changes When the Property Is Sold

From the tenant's side, nothing. A tenancy in British Columbia runs with the property. The buyer steps into the landlord's position on the existing agreement, at the existing rent, holding the existing deposits, with the 12-month rent increase clock running exactly where the seller left it. There is no reset at completion and no opportunity to re-paper the tenancy on better terms.

That is the number investors get wrong. Metro Vancouver has 20,222 active listings right now at a median asking price of $1,118,000, and any one of them can come with a tenancy attached. Underwrite the rent the tenant is actually paying, not the rent the unit might fetch empty. Our guide to buying a tenanted property in BC covers vacant possession and the deposit transfer at completion, and our guide to ending a month-to-month tenancy covers the notice forms and periods for each legal path.

What to Check Before You Sign

Whether you are the landlord drafting the agreement or the buyer inheriting one, the same short list decides how much trouble the tenancy causes later.

• The agreement itself. Read every added clause. Anything that contradicts the Act is void, so relying on it is worse than not having it.
• The deposit amounts and dates. Each capped at half a month's rent, both recorded on the agreement, both transferred at completion on a sale.
• The date of the last rent increase. It sets the earliest date the next increase can take effect, and the increase is capped at 2.3% for 2026.
• The condition inspection reports. Both of them, signed, with a copy given to the tenant. Without them the deposits are effectively unclaimable for damage.
• The forms. RTB-1 for the agreement, RTB-7 for a residential rent increase, RTB-11 for a manufactured home site, RTB-27 for the inspections.

A BC tenancy agreement is only as strong as the paperwork behind it. The Residential Tenancy Branch keeps the current forms and the annual cap on gov.bc.ca, and these figures change by regulation, so confirm them before you serve anything. On the property side, check what a tenanted BC property is worth with Offerland-powered estimates, or browse current Metro Vancouver listings with live MLS data updated throughout the day.