New Westminster landlords now have to keep rental units from getting too hot
New West is now requiring landlords and property owners to keep rentals from reaching dangerous temperatures.
On June 8, City Council officially passed an amendment that requires at least one living space in an occupied rental unit to be maintained at or below 26°C between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., from April 1 to Oct 31.
If someone has prolonged exposure to temperatures higher than that, it could potentially be a health risk.
This follows the 2021 deadly heat dome in B.C., where temperatures hit 40°C in many parts of B.C., and high indoor temperatures were the main cause of injury and death. A report from the British Columbia Coroners Service found that 619 people died due to heat-related causes — 33 of them in New Westminster.
After the heat dome, New Westminster City Council directed staff to amend its bylaws to protect tenants from heat-related deaths in the future.
“We’re expecting more heat domes and climate-related events in the future,” said Nadine Nakagawa, a New West city councillor, in an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized in April.
“In the City of New West, we have a legacy of taking action and leadership on renters’ rights. So we decided that we’d look and see what we could do here locally.”
In 2025, City Council adopted a bylaw amendment stating that property owners could not prohibit tenants from using portable cooling devices to help keep themselves cool.
Now, it has adopted this second bylaw amendment that puts the onus on the landlords to keep homes from getting too hot.
The City is encouraging property owners to “conduct a cooling audit and work with tenants to identify the best measures and options for their particular context, in advance of hot weather.”
The City states that property owners can choose the cooling solution that best fits their building, such as thermal curtains, window films, portable AC units, ceiling fans, basic air sealing, and HVAC filter cleaning.
Nakagawa said that New Westminster is composed of about 45 per cent tenants. While the BC Building Code now requires all new residential buildings to have one living space that doesn’t exceed 26°C, older buildings remain vulnerable to high temperatures.
During the 2021 heat dome, she said most of the heat-related deaths were in older rental buildings.
“I take the position that your housing should be safe, and that in this type of event, your home shouldn’t be the most dangerous place to be, and it was.”