BC regulator cancels license suspension of Rent It Furnished

Rent It Furnished

New orders from the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) dated August 9, 2024, show that the independent provincial financial regulator has rescinded its previous decision to suspend Rent It Furnished’s license and freeze its rental trust accounts.

In late July 2024, to support its decision to suspend the Vancouver-based company’s license and rental trust accounts, the provincial Crown corporation accused Rent It Furnished of continued non-compliance with financial record reporting requirements as stipulated by law.

The company subsequently challenged BCFSA’s decision in a legal hearing, which led to today’s new orders. The findings of KPMG’s third-party forensic audit, which were commissioned by the company, were presented during the hearing.

You might also like:

While BCFSA has now reversed some of its previous penalties and restrictions on the company, today’s order states Rent It Furnished is required to provide the regulator with a monthly reconciliation of their rental trust accounts until the discipline hearing scheduled for mid-November 2024. Furthermore, as stated by the amended order today, “each monthly trust reconciliation is to be received by BCFSA no later than the end of the month following the month to which the trust reconciliation relates.”

A rental trust account is a bank account dedicated to collecting rent, security deposits, and other fees paid by tenants. The money must be deposited into the specified rental trust account and is subject to auditing annually. This is intended to protect the money of tenants and landlords and reduce the potential for misappropriation of funds.

According to BCFSA, the company oversees about 350 properties across British Columbia, and its previous decision to suspend the company’s license and rental trust accounts was intended to protect the tenants and landlords of these properties. However, in doing so, it created confusion and uncertainty for tenants and landlords.

Former BC Attorney General Wally Oppal, a member of Rent It Furnished’s legal team, argued that the severe penalty of a license suspension was disproportionate to the issues at hand.

“The BCFSA has a legitimate role to protect the public, but this suspension didn’t fit the circumstances and caused widespread disruption to the business and members of the public who depend on it,” said Oppal in a statement today.

“While Rent It Furnished had some administrative issues, the order was unnecessarily punitive, especially considering the business is classified an essential service. I am pleased the BCFSA took a second look and rescinded it.”

Immediately after today’s decision, Rent It Furnished resumed operations. Staff are now working to catch up on processing rent transactions between landlords and tenants, and addressing building maintenance emergencies.

Erika Weimer, the founder and CEO of Rent It Furnished, says she is “still numb” from the BCFSA’s original orders and asserts that “there was zero evidence of misappropriation of trust funds, which we fought relentlessly to prove.” The company claims that BCFSA did not give the brokerage an opportunity to defend itself before last month’s punitive order, which caught their staff off guard.

“Though the suspension was brief, thousands of our landlords and tenants were disrupted and had to seek temporary assistance outside of our company to pay and receive rent, and we were forbidden from tending to building maintenance emergencies,” said Weimer.

Rent It Furnished’s headquarters are located in downtown Vancouver’s Yaletown district, and they also have offices in Toronto and Montreal.

According to Rent It Furnished Realty’s website, the company describes itself as a “leading provider of luxury rental property in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and New York,” representing over 5,000 luxury furnished properties. The company first launched 15 years ago.

You might also like: