Tenant bylaw exempts Township's growing rental portfolio

After years of leaving renters without formal protections, Langley Township is proposing its first Tenant Protection Bylaw.

Council will hold a combined Public Input Opportunity and Public Hearing on the three-bylaw package Monday, May 25 at 7 p.m.

The bylaw is a meaningful step forward for renters in the buildings it covers. It does not cover the Township itself, or the Housing Trust Society the Township owns.

Asked about the gap, the Township confirmed to The Langley Union: "The municipality is exempt from Bylaw 6214, a standard practice also already adopted by other Metro Vancouver municipalities. This exemption also extends to the municipality's Housing Society, whose only purpose-built apartment projects within the municipality are the BC Builds developments currently under construction."

Common practice? Perhaps.

Good policy? That might be a different story.

The Township's Housing Trust

The municipality's Housing Society is the Township of Langley Housing Trust Society, a wholly-owned but legally separate municipal corporation set up by this council to develop rental housing in partnership with BC Housing.

Three projects totalling 368 residential units are now under construction. About 70 per cent of the units will rent at market rate, with the remaining 30 per cent offered at 20 per cent below market, on sites that include the former Alder Inn in Aldergrove, the former firehall at 78 Avenue in Willoughby, and a third project on 199 Street. langleytomorrow

Independent analysis by Mike Parker of Langley Tomorrow puts the Township's direct public commitment at $29.3 million, consisting of $17.7 million in donated land and $11.6 million in waived development cost charges, on top of an estimated $177 million in debt the Housing Trust has taken on.

The Township initially insisted that debt would have no net impact on the municipal borrowing limit, then quietly added a line to its 2026 capital plan confirming that it does.

Within a few years the Housing Trust will be operating one of the larger rental portfolios in the Township, backed by tens of millions in direct public investment and hundreds of millions in publicly-guaranteed debt.

Why the exemption matters

There is no principled reason an owner of a five-unit privately-built rental should face Tenant Protection Bylaw requirements while a publicly-owned landlord on this scale should not.

If anything, a municipal landlord backed by taxpayer guarantees should be held to a higher standard than the private market, not a lower one.

The 2021 eviction of the 80th Avenue household was a preview of what happens when this principle is reversed.

The Township purchased a rental home near the Langley Events Centre, offered the five tenants living there nothing more than help moving and a hotel stay, and pursued an Order of Possession through the Residential Tenancy Branch and BC Supreme Court.

The Eviction Defence Network documented the case in The Volcano at the time, alongside Langley Advance Times coverage by reporter Matthew Claxton whose archive is no longer publicly accessible following the publication's site migration to the Alabama-based Carpenter Media Group.

A municipality with that track record, with that growing rental portfolio, and with the legal power to bind itself, has every reason to do so.

Choosing not to, because other Metro Vancouver municipalities also chose not to, is not a defence. It is the choice itself.

Tip Jar

What the bylaw does for the renters it covers

Bylaw 6214 would require owners of rental buildings with five or more units to provide displaced tenants with financial compensation, relocation assistance, and a right of first refusal to rent a unit in the new building.

Compensation is tied to length of tenancy: three months of rent for tenants of zero to five years, four months for six to ten years, six months for 11 to 15 years, and ten months for tenants of 16 or more years. Moving expenses are set at $1,000 for studios and one-bedrooms, $1,250 for two-bedrooms, and $1,500 for larger units. The right of first refusal applies at a rent no more than ten per cent below CMHC's reported average rent for the unit size in the Township.

Owners would also be required to designate a Tenant Relocation Coordinator, retain a third-party coordinator for any demolition involving 50 or more units, submit a Tenant Assistance Plan with their development application, and help eligible tenants find three comparable units within three kilometres or the same community.

Companion Bylaw 6215 sets $450 fines for failing to comply with each requirement, with potential escalation to a $10,000 maximum on summary conviction.

Bylaw 6216 amends the Official Community Plan to create a Tenant Protection Development Permit Area, applied Township-wide.

The five-unit threshold leaves most other renters out

Section 4.1 applies the bylaw only to purpose-built rental buildings of five or more units owned by the same owner.

Single-family rentals are excluded. Duplexes, triplexes, and four-plexes are excluded. Secondary suites are excluded. So are the older rental homes scattered through Willoughby and Murrayville that developers have been quietly assembling for years.

A very large share of the Township's rental stock sits in exactly the building types this bylaw will not cover.

Compensation lags the City, and the right of first refusal is softer than it looks

Even for the renters who do qualify, the Township's schedule is weaker than what Langley City offers.

A long-tenured Township renter of 16 or more years receives ten months of rent. A vulnerable Langley City tenant of ten or more years can claim up to 16 months.

The Township bylaw contains no enhanced compensation tier for vulnerable tenants at all. Section 9.2 requires the owner to connect seniors, people with disabilities, low-income households, and recent immigrants with non-profit and social service agencies, but they get no additional money.

The right of first refusal is also less generous than it appears. It is pegged to CMHC's reported average rent, not to market rent in the new building. CMHC averages capture existing tenancies, including long-term renters paying well below current asking rates, which pulls the average down.

Ten per cent below CMHC average is meaningfully below new-build market rent, but it is still likely to be more than what a long-term tenant was paying in the demolished building.

The in-stream exemption is a real loophole

Section 12.2 exempts any redevelopment application already in stream on the Effective Date.

Any developer with paperwork already filed proceeds without the bylaw. In a Township that has aggressively encouraged rental redevelopment, that cohort is not small.

What council should hear on May 25

The bylaw is a floor, not a ceiling. The province's 2024 Bill 16 enables stronger protections than the Township has chosen to write into Bylaw 6214.

Residents who want a bylaw with real reach should push council to:

• Drop the municipal exemption so the Township and its Housing Trust are bound by their own rules,
• Lower the threshold from five units to two,
• Add a vulnerable tenant compensation tier of up to 16 months matching the City,
• Remove the in-stream exemption,
• Peg the right of first refusal to market rent rather than CMHC averages, and
• Require one-for-one rental replacement so demolished stock does not vanish into condo inventory.

More housing supply is essential. So is keeping existing renters housed.

Density and dignity are not in tension.

The Township can build more homes, run a Housing Trust, and protect tenants all at the same time.

Show up

The Public Input Opportunity and Public Hearing begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 25 at the Fraser River Presentation Theatre, 20338 65 Avenue.

Watch online at tol.ca/councilstream.

Register to speak at tol.ca/speakers before 6 p.m. that day. Written submissions go to legservicesinfo@tol.ca and form part of the public record.

A bylaw with teeth would be a real step.

A bylaw with this many exemptions, starting with the one the Township has carved out for itself, is closer to a press release with fines attached.

Council can do better, and council can be pushed.

References and Further Reading

Tenant Protection Bylaw Nos. 6214, 6215 and 6216 ReportStaff report to council (April 27, 2026) with the full text of Bylaw Nos. 6214, 6215, and 6216Tenant-Protection-Bylaw-Nos.-6214,-6215-and-6216-Report.pdf994 KBdownload-circle

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