Bitter feud ensues after landlord's failed attempt to raise tenants' rent 65% | CBC News

Fredericton-River Valley Jonathan King is fighting his landlord's repeated attempts at terminating his rental lease, which he says was issued in retribution to him complaining about a 65 per cent rent increase.(Submitted/Jonathan King) King has rented this bungalow on Spring Street in Chipman for five years. It and another bungalow, at rear right, were purchased by Ashmin Goolab and her husband in August 2024.(Submitted by Jonathan King) Ashmin Goolab says she wants Jonathan King and his wife out of their bungalow, so that her mother-in-law can eventually live there.(Zoom/CBC) King says landlords can get around a rent cap of three per cent if tenants aren't aware of their rights.(Submitted by Jonathan King) Bitter feud ensues after landlord's failed attempt to raise tenants' rent 65% Landlord claims rental is needed for mother-in-law, but tenant views eviction as retaliation A New Brunswick tenant says he’s being pushed out of his rented bungalow as retribution for complaining about his landlord, but his landlord says she’s the victim of an unfair tenancy tribunal ruling that is preventing her from using the unit to house family. Jonathan King and his landlord, Ashmin Goolab, have been embroiled in a bitter year-long dispute involving a notice of a 65 per cent rent increase, a failed eviction attempt, and claims that the unit is needed to house Goolab's mother-in-law. King, who lives in Chipman, said Goolab is trying to force him and his wife out of their affordably priced bungalow in an effort to circumvent New Brunswick's rent cap, and as retribution for a complaint he made about being given improper notice to alter their lease. Goolab said she and her family are the victims of the tribunal ruling, as well as unlucky timing in their plans to relocate with her husband and mother-in-law from Ontario to the property they bought in 2024. "I don't know what to do anymore," Goolab said. "I just, I'm so lost. I'm so frustrated." New owner, big rent increase King said he's lived in the two-bedroom home since August 2020 after moving from the United States to live with his wife, who'd already been living in the rental for five years. He said the bungalow, as well as three other buildings comprising seven units, were sold in August 2024. That same month, King said he received a letter giving 60 days notice that the lease was being altered to exclude electricity costs. Then days later, on Sept. 1, 2024, he and his neighbours received notice of rent increases, with his set to go up the following March to $1,200 a month from $727. "We were shocked and it definitely has put some strain on us and has been an emotional roller-coaster ever since," said King, who also volunteers with ACORN New Brunswick, a social and economic justice group. King said he appealed both of notices with the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office. On Nov. 22, he said someone from the office contacted him to confirm his landlord was supposed to have have...

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