March 31, 2020 – UPDATE

In an effort to keep tenants as informed as possible we will be implementing a daily update on what we know. If you have any questions for our elected officials please email us at housingpei@gmail.com and we will do our best to find the answers.

On March 30 the Government of PEI Announced the Temporary Rental Assistance Benefit. It will provide 1 million dollars to assist Island households that are currently renting and have seen an unexpected loss of income due to COVID-19. 

• Right now, when you call 1-877-368-5770 you get an answering machine asking you to leave your contact details.
• We have confirmed that assistance will not be provided until May 1
• What we don’t know is how much support will be given. Will it cover a tenant’s entire rent or a portion? 
• We also don’t know what the application process and criteria will look like. 
• Will they be assigning more staff to help process applications?
• If you lost your job due to COVID-19 and applied for EI will this affect your chances of getting the benefit?

On March 30, IRAC announced they will be suspending all hearings until further notice.

• This doesn’t stop your landlord from issuing you a Notice of Termination for not paying rent. 
• We recommend you first try and work out a payment plan with your landlord.
• If you get still get served with a notice we recommend you fill out a Form 6 and email it to rentalinquiries@irac.pe.ca. 
• We believe it is important to do this so that if you continue to be unable to pay rent as a result of COVID-19 your objection to the eviction is on the record.
• Landlords may try to evict you in order for themselves or family to move into your space. They cannot do this without a legal order issued by IRAC. Since hearings are suspended, orders cannot be issued.
• Here is a helpful info sheet about evictions and COVID-19 from the Community Legal Information Association.

As far as we know on Apri 1 at 1:30 pm the Supreme Court of PEI will review the Attorney Generals application for the stoppage of eviction order enforcements until the end of the current public health emergency, in part to protect sheriff services staff.

If you know anyone who is a renter please share this information with them. Not everyone has access to a computer and they may not know their rights.

DISCLAIMER: In such a chaotic environment we will do our best, but due to the quick changes in information, we could be prone to out of date information or errors. If something we have said is incorrect, please let us know by emailing housingpei@gmail.com.