Disputing an Eviction

Last revised March 01, 2024

A tenant is entitled to dispute the landlord's reasons for wanting to end the tenancy. To do so, a tenant must file an Application for Dispute Resolution with the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB).

Time limit to dispute

In the case of a 10 Day Notice to End Tenancy for Unpaid Rent or Utilities, if the tenant pays the full rent within five days of receiving the notice, the notice is cancelled, and the tenancy continues. If the tenant wishes to dispute the notice, the tenant has five days from the date the notice is received to apply for dispute resolution.

In the case of a One Month Notice to End Tenancy for Cause, it the tenant wishes to dispute the notice, the tenant has 10 days from the date the notice is received to apply for dispute resolution.

If the last day for disputing a notice falls on a holiday or weekend, the deadline is extended to the next business day. If the tenant has missed a deadline to apply for dispute resolution, the RTB may only extend the time to apply under exceptional circumstances. For example a notice was given and the time limited to dispute the notice lapsed while a tenant was hospitalized and therefore unavailable. In this instance a tenant would be required to provide evidence of the hospitalization period.

Order of possession

If you failed to dispute a Notice to End Tenancy within the required timeline, or you did dispute the Notice to End Tenancy, but the RTB has refused to cancel the notice, your landlord can ask the RTB for an Order of Possession. 

After the arbitrator grants an Order of Possession, the landlord has to serve a copy of it to the tenant.

Under the Order of Possession, the tenant has to leave.

If the tenant doesn't leave after receiving the copy of the Order, the landlord can enforce the Order through the BC Supreme Court with a Writ of Possession (Form 52). The landlord cannot physically remove a tenant, even when the tenancy is legally over, nor can the landlord change the locks without an order from the Supreme Court, or without evidence that the tenant has abandoned the premises.

Before using a court bailiff to evict you from your rental unit your landlord must do all of the following:

• Serve you with a copy of the Order of Possession.
• Wait for the 2-day review period to expire. (note: If you file an application for review during the 2-day review period, the RTB might put the Order of Possession on hold until your review application is decided. If that happens, your landlord has to wait until the review is decided, before moving on to the next step.)
• Take the Order of Possession down to the BC Supreme Court Registry, and get a Writ of Possession from the Court. This is a very quick process.

Once the Writ of Possession is issued, hire a court appointed bailiff to evict you. You can ask for a review of the dispute resolution officer’s decision at a Judicial Review at the Supreme Court of BC.

This is your only option for review if:

• your case does not meet the grounds for review of a dispute resolution officer's decision provided by the Residential Tenancy Branch, or,
• you want to challenge a dispute resolution officer’s decision resulting from a review.

The time limit for filing an application for judicial review in court is 60 days from the date of the decision.

The application for a judicial review must be made by petition and supporting affidavits.  The process related to petitions is set out in Supreme Court Civil Rule 16-1.

However, simply filing a judicial review does not automatically put your eviction on hold.

Unless you apply for, and obtain, a court order saying that your eviction is put on hold (an interim stay), your landlord can go ahead with the eviction while your judicial review is pending.

Interim stay

It is up to the judge to decide in each case whether or not to order an interim stay. When a judge does decide to put an eviction on hold, he or she usually specifies that the interim stay is in effect only until a certain specific date or only until the court has dealt with the full application for judicial review.

To ask the court for an interim stay of an order of possession, you need to:

• file an application for judicial review of the order of possession and the decision that it is based on; and
• make a special court application asking for an interim stay.

If the court gives you an interim stay, it will be important to set the hearing of your judicial review for sometime before the interim stays runs out.

During COVID-19 state of emergency

Ministerial Order No. M089 under the Emergency Program Act states that:

Despite sections 44 (1) (a) (ii) to (vi) and sections 46 to 49.1 of the Residential Tenancy Act or any other section of the Residential Tenancy Act, the Residential Tenancy Regulation or any term of a tenancy agreement, a landlord must not give a tenant a notice to end the tenancy during the period this order is in effect.

The timeline this order covers is:

[...] the period that starts on the date this order is made and ends on the date on which the declaration of a state of emergency  made March 18, 2020 under section 9 (1) of the Emergency Program Act expires or is cancelled, or if there is an extension of the declaration under section 9 (4) of the Emergency Program Act, the date on which the last extension expires or is cancelled.

The Province of BC ended the state of emergency on June 30, 2021.