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

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."

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 given 90 days notice for altering the lease agreement, making the notice invalid.

Then unexpectedly, three days later, King said, he received a letter from his landlord's property manager, notifying him the lease was being terminated as of March 1, 2025.

In the notice, the reason given was that the landlord or their immediate family intended to live in the premises — one of the four reasons a landlord is allowed to give when terminating a lease.