Mateo connected with our office with a number of concerns about the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB), including issues he was having due to the fact that English is not his first language. Following a dispute with his landlord, Mateo requested an in-person hearing because he had challenges understanding conversations in English over the phone. Mateo was told that in-person hearings were only conducted for individuals with medical exemptions. Feeling this was unreasonable, Mateo contacted us.

Through our investigation, we learned that a publicly available RTB policy allowed for alternative hearing formats in situations where language may be a barrier, but an internal RTB policy contradicted this information. We also learned that the RTB only considered requests for alternate hearing formats when they were presented via certain channels, but this information may not be clear to all RTB users. Accordingly, we proposed that the RTB create a specific form for individuals to request alternatively formatted hearings, and we asked that it modify its internal policy to align with this form and the external policy. The RTB implemented both of our proposals.