“The RTB always sides with tenants.”

WHAT'S TRUE

No public data supports this. RTB arbitrators are required to rule on evidence. Individual decisions are searchable, so anyone can check.

THE DETAIL

Under the Residential Tenancy Act, arbitrators rule on the evidence filed by each side. The RTB publishes its decisions in a public, searchable database (tenancydispute.gov.bc.ca). There is no government dataset or peer-reviewed study that tracks aggregate win rates by side, which means the 'always sides with tenants' framing is a perception, not a documented statistic. What actually predicts the outcome of a case, across both tenant- and landlord-initiated disputes, is documentation: dated written notices, receipts, condition inspection reports, and evidence filed on time. The side with the better paper trail tends to win.