Can I make a side agreement with my tenant in British Columbia?

Every side deal is a change to the tenancy agreement

A side agreement is anything a landlord and tenant settle outside the signed tenancy agreement: the tenant mows the lawn and the rent drops, a cat is allowed after all, a partner moves in, the parking spot comes off the deal, this year's rent increase is skipped. Under the Residential Tenancy Act each of these is an amendment to the tenancy agreement, and the Act has rules for amendments. Calling it a favour or a handshake does not take it outside those rules.

The Province's own guidance on changing a tenancy agreement is plain: once a tenancy starts, the landlord and the tenant must both agree in writing to any change or addition, and both should have a copy of the updated agreement.

What the two of you can change, and what you cannot

The Act splits a tenancy agreement into two kinds of terms. The standard terms are part of every tenancy agreement in the province, written down or not, and the Act says a tenancy agreement may not be amended to change or remove one. Every other term can be added, removed or changed, but only if both the landlord and the tenant agree.

Three kinds of change do not need the tenant's agreement: a rent increase made under the rent rules in the Act, a withdrawal or restriction of a service or facility done the way the Act allows, and a change an arbitrator has ordered. Everything else needs both people.

Above all of this sits the line that decides most side-deal disputes: landlords and tenants may not avoid or contract out of the Act or its regulations, and any attempt to do so is of no effect. A tenant cannot sign away a protection the Act gives them, even willingly, even for lower rent. Four side deals that run into the Act:

1. The tenant agrees the landlord can come in whenever it suits. The Act restricts when and how a landlord may enter a rental unit, and a private deal does not switch that off.
2. The rent goes up when a new occupant arrives, although the tenancy agreement says nothing about it. The Province's guidance allows that only if the agreement already provides for it or both of you sign a new agreement.
3. A rent increase above the regulated amount, agreed out loud. The Act allows an increase above that amount only when an arbitrator orders it or the tenant agrees to it in writing.
4. The parking spot or storage locker quietly disappears with no change in rent. A service or facility can be withdrawn only the way the Act allows, with the rent reduced to match.

A term also fails if nobody can tell what it means

The Act names three reasons a term of a tenancy agreement does not bind anyone: it is inconsistent with the Act or the regulations, it is unconscionable, or it is not expressed in a manner that clearly communicates the rights and obligations under it. The third is the one side deals trip on. "Rent is cheaper while you help out around the place" does not say how much cheaper, for what help, or until when.

A side agreement that can survive a disagreement is short and boring. Write these five things:

1. Both names exactly as they appear on the tenancy agreement, and the address of the rental unit.
2. The date you agreed, and the date the change starts.
3. The change itself in one or two sentences: what the tenant gets, what the tenant gives, and any new rent written as an amount.
4. Whether and how it ends: a fixed date, a condition, or written notice from either of you, and what the rent returns to afterwards.
5. Both signatures, with a copy in each person's hands, kept together with the tenancy agreement.

Rent and services: where most side deals go wrong

The Act says a landlord must not increase rent except in accordance with its rent rules, and those rules set when an increase may take effect, how much notice it needs and the approved form it goes on. If a landlord collects an increase that does not comply, the Act lets the tenant deduct it from rent or recover it another way. A side deal that moves the rent is a rent term, and it has to fit those rules.

Services work the same way in reverse. A landlord must not take away a service or facility that is essential to living in the unit, or one that is a material term of the tenancy. Any other service or facility can be ended or restricted only with written notice in the approved form and a rent reduction equal to the value the tenancy loses. The Province's guidance calls a missing reduction a hidden rent increase, and unlawful.

So a deal that trades rent for yard work, or a parking spot for a discount, needs its numbers written down and checked against the rent pages linked below before either of you signs.

What Policy Guideline 42 says about your texts

Most side deals are made by text. Residential Tenancy Policy Guideline 42, Digital Evidence, is the Branch's own statement of how it treats that kind of record if a dispute reaches it, and it is short enough to read in one sitting.

For emails and text messages, the party who submits them must state under oath or affirmation that each one is authentic, a fair and complete copy of the original transmission, and not misleading or confusing. When authenticity is challenged, the person who submitted the evidence has to prove it on the balance of probabilities. Proving that someone received an email relies on a statement from that person, and the guideline warns against confusing a mail server accepting a message with the person receiving it.

For photographs and video, the party must show the image fairly and accurately represents the facts and that there is no intention to mislead, and photos are to be clear, numbered and described in writing. An audio recording has to be a complete or reasonably complete record, and one with gaps is less likely to be considered.

Three practical points from the same guideline:

1. A file shared through a service such as Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive must be view-only for the other party; with the wrong sharing settings the arbitrator may or may not consider it.
2. Saved email files such as .eml and .msg were taken off the list of accepted formats, so export an email thread to PDF instead.
3. The Branch does not return evidence. Keep an exact copy of everything you submit, for as long after the proceeding as the Rules of Procedure require.

The gap a text thread leaves

Read those requirements against a typical side deal: a thumbs-up under "ok if Sam moves in, rent goes up from next month". The amount is somewhere else in the thread, the thread lives on two phones, and either copy can be cropped. None of that makes the deal void. It makes you the person who has to show that the screenshot is complete and not misleading, about a conversation the other side now remembers differently.

One written amendment, signed by both people, dated, and kept by both, closes most of that gap before anyone needs it.

What TrustChain does, and what it cannot do

TrustChain keeps one final text that both parties sign, a timestamped audit trail of each signature, and an optional anchor that writes a fingerprint of the signed record to a dated Polygon transaction TrustChain does not control. Once both sign, neither side can edit the text in the app, and if the record is anchored, a later change would no longer match the fingerprint on Polygon. Tamper-evident means a later change would show up as a mismatch, not that a change is impossible. Both parties verify identity with a photo ID and a selfie through Sumsub before signing, and an unverified account cannot sign.

The public link opens without an account once both parties have signed and shows the record's status and, if it was anchored, its fingerprint, never the parties' identities. Each party keeps their own record, certificate and PDF on every plan, which matches the guideline's advice to keep an exact copy of what you submit.

What it cannot do matters more on this page than on any other. A signed record shows what both people agreed and when. It does not make a term valid. A side deal that contracts out of the Residential Tenancy Act has no effect whether it sits in a text, on paper or in a TrustChain record, and TrustChain makes no claim about how the Branch will decide any dispute. The free plan covers 1 agreement a month, no card needed.

Where this page stops

This is general information for landlords and tenants in British Columbia, not legal advice, and it names no deadline, amount or section number on purpose. Those change, and the copies on BC Laws and the Province's pages below are the only ones worth quoting. Guideline 42 says the same of itself: it may be revised and new guidelines issued from time to time.

Before you sign a side deal that touches rent, services, occupants or entry, check it with the Residential Tenancy Branch. It gives landlords and tenants information about their rights and obligations, and its contact page is linked below.