British Columbia: RTB Publishes Access-to-Records Policy Guideline

British Columbia's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, FOIPPA, normally gives the public the right to request records held by a public body like the RTB. This guideline exists specifically because that general rule mostly doesn't apply here. [Cite: RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section A]

Under section 5.1 of the Residential Tenancy Act and the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act, the director of the RTB is treated as a tribunal for the purposes of section 61 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, and that section removes FOIPPA's application to a specific list of records: personal notes and draft decisions, facilitated-settlement notes, information received during an excluded portion of a hearing, and hearing recordings. [Cite: Administrative Tribunals Act, s. 61(2); RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section C]

Because FOIPPA doesn't reach those records, they also can't be requested under FOIPPA. That gap is exactly what the RTB's own policy fills.

Before July 31, 2025, information about a dispute generally stayed within the file, accessible only to the parties involved. Monetary orders issued from that date forward are now published to a searchable database on the RTB's website, including party names and the address of the rental unit. [Cite: RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section E]

If a person believes that publication could affect their safety or security, they can request an exemption from having their order published. That request has to identify the specific concern; it isn't an automatic opt-out.

This matters for landlords in a way it didn't before. A monetary order against a landlord for, say, an improperly withheld deposit is now a searchable, named, address-linked public record, not something that stayed relatively contained inside an RTB file.

A party to a dispute can make a written request for documents or evidence from that file at any point during the process, specifying what they're asking for and who submitted it. The RTB provides one copy. [Cite: RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section D, "Requests for documents from file"]

That request doesn't replace the parties' own service obligations under the RTA and the Rules of Procedure; it's a way to get a copy of something already in the file, not a substitute for properly serving evidence on the other side. Repeated requests for the same information can be reviewed and declined if the RTB considers it an abuse of process.

Viewing a physical file requires attending the RTB's Burnaby office and verifying identity, with any documents the requesting party isn't permitted to see removed first. If materials were submitted electronically, a party can instead attend an RTB or Service BC office to have documents printed, or have copies mailed if attending in person isn't possible. [Cite: RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section D, "Requests to view a file"]

Party status doesn't open every part of a file. With limited exceptions, the RTB won't release certain categories to anyone other than the person who submitted them: information supporting a fee-waiver application, medical information submitted for something other than the substantive dispute itself, information submitted in support of a review-consideration application, and personal information supplied in confidence, such as an address withheld over domestic-violence concerns. [Cite: RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section D, "Information that will not be released"]

Hearing recordings work through their own process. The RTB records audio of all dispute-resolution hearings, and parties are prohibited from making their own recordings, a rule backed by administrative monetary penalties. A party who wants a copy submits a Request for a Recording Hearing, and anyone given access can't alter, copy, distribute, or publish it without written authorization from the director. [Cite: RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section D, "Obtaining a recording of a dispute resolution hearing"]

This guideline is specifically about records the RTB itself holds. It's worth being clear that a different law altogether governs how a landlord handles a tenant's personal information: the Personal Information Protection Act, PIPA, which applies to private organizations, explicitly including an individual involved in a commercial activity such as a landlord. [Cite: RTB Policy Guideline 47, Section B; Personal Information Protection Act]

A landlord's own obligations for collecting, storing, and disclosing an applicant's or tenant's personal information run through PIPA, not through this guideline. This guideline governs what the RTB does with its own dispute records, a related but distinct question.