This publication is intended as a brief summary of our recommendations for abolishing distress for rent in Alberta.

Distress for rent is an old English medieval law that allowed a landlord to seize and HOLD personal property of tenants until rent was paid. Since the economy then was mostly agricultural back then, examples of personal property seized were often livestock and harvested crops while property such as looms or anvils could be seized from tradesmen.

Distress for rent is different today. A landlord must work with a civil enforcement agency and bailiff to carry out distress for rent. Once rent is at least one day late, a landlord can seize personal property found at the home AND sell it to recover unpaid rent. 

What are We Recommending?

We’re recommending the Government of Alberta abolish Distress for Rent for residential tenancies because:

• There is no value in reforming a remedy that is ineffective 
• Distress for rent almost never achieves the goal of recovering a significant amount of unpaid rent
• It eliminates the risks to landlords of levying distress for rent incorrectly
• Reduces the devastating harms to tenants that can make a bad situation worse
• Aligns the law with all other common-law provinces in Canada

Landlords would lose the ability to levy distress for rent, or use the threat of distress for rent, but this should be of little concern as distress for rent just doesn’t work well and landlords have more effective, adequate and fair remedies available to them.