Should Landlords Be Allowed to Seize and Sell a Tenant’s Property to Recover Unpaid Rent?

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. [...]

By |2026-10-16T10:14:19-06:00October 16th, 2026|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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What Issues are Tenants and Landlords Experiencing when Ending a Tenancy?

The Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI) has published Residential Tenancies Act: Ending a Tenancy, Issues Paper 8. Alberta has a higher than average turnover rate in the rental market than most of Canada. It is unclear why Alberta has a higher turnover rate, but we have heard that the options available to tenants and landlords to end a tenancy are ineffective or too severe. Navigating the Law There are more than a dozen reasons a [...]

By |2026-09-24T10:33:06-06:00May 26th, 2026|Latest News|0 Comments
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Residential Tenancies Act: Ending a Tenancy, Issues Paper 8

Alberta has a higher than average turnover rate in the rental market than most of Canada. It is unclear why Alberta has a higher turnover rate, but we have heard that the options available to tenants and landlords to end a tenancy are ineffective or too severe. There are more than a dozen reasons a landlord or tenant may end a tenancy under the Residential Tenancies Act. The rules and conditions for ending a tenancy [...]

By |2026-05-26T10:29:26-06:00May 6th, 2026|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Reviewing Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Act: Before and During a Tenancy

The Residential Tenancies Act governs the relationship between landlord and tenant. More specifically, it governs the relationships between people renting a place as a home. The Residential Tenancies Act does not govern the relationships created when renting a commercial place, and it does not govern the relationships of people renting mobile home sites. The Residential Tenancies Act affects hundreds of thousands of people living in Alberta, more than one quarter of all households in the [...]

By |2026-03-23T11:42:52-06:00March 16th, 2026|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Residential Tenancies: Distress for Rent, Final Report 122

This is one out of a series of reports related to residential tenancy issues in Alberta. This report addresses issues eight and nine identified in ALRI’s Residential Tenancies Act: General Issues paper. Distress for rent is an ancient common law self-help remedy that, under certain conditions, allows a landlord to seize and sell a tenant’s property to recover unpaid rent. While there are many aspects of the English common law that still inform the law [...]

By |2026-03-19T08:48:31-06:00March 2nd, 2026|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Reviewing Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Act

The Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI) is working on a project to look at the rules for landlords and tenants in Alberta. This includes reviewing a law called the Residential Tenancies Act. The Residential Tenancies Act explains the basic rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants. It says what each side must do or not do. It also gives ways to solve problems between landlords and tenants. This summary document highlights some of the issues [...]

By |2026-02-02T10:48:32-07:00February 2nd, 2026|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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Residential Tenancies Act, Issues Paper 7

This report is the second in a series summarizing issues under Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Act, SA 2004, c R-17.1. This report, and the others in the series, lay the groundwork for a larger project on residential tenancies. This series of reports does not make any recommendations to reform. Rather, the series is an inventory of issues. The first report introduced the project and focused on general issues with the Residential Tenancies Act. The second report [...]

By |2026-02-12T08:16:35-07:00February 12th, 2026|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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The Residential Tenancies Act: General Issues

The Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI) has published Residential Tenancies Act: General Issues. This is the first in a series of reports summarizing issues in the law that affects tenants and landlords on a daily basis. The Residential Tenancies Act is important because it affects over 25% of households in Alberta and often involve not just money, but also the basic necessity of shelter, quality of life, health and well-being of landlords, tenants and families [...]

By |2025-06-12T09:29:45-06:00March 25th, 2025|Uncategorized|0 Comments
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