Top 7 free tools for BC landlords and property managers (2026)

Every year in early January, BC property managers do the same calculation: what is the cap, how do I serve the notice correctly, and when is the last date I can serve it? Those three questions keep coming up in forums and inboxes because the answers are scattered across a government website, an RTB policy guideline, a forms page, and whatever a colleague told you last time.

This list rounds up seven free resources that actually answer them, organized by the task you're doing rather than by brand. No rankings, no star ratings. Every external link below was checked for a working page before it went in this list, retrieved July 19, 2026.

Checking the cap and the date

BC government Rent Increase Calculator

The official BC Rent Increase Calculator answers a specific question: given your last rent increase date and next rental payment date, when can you increase again, and by how much. Enter current monthly rent, whether it has been increased before, and those two dates - the tool returns the earliest allowed effective date and the maximum dollar amount. It is free, requires no account, and applies to monthly-rent tenancies only (subsidized housing and manufactured home park tenancies follow separate rules, both linked from the page). The tool itself was last updated in November 2024, per its source code; for the current year's cap percentage it links out to the government's rent increases page, where the 2026 cap of 2.3% is published (gov.bc.ca, retrieved July 19, 2026).

Perch's rent increase calculator

The rent increase calculator at gofactai.com/perch/tools/rent-increase-calculator takes a different angle on the same problem: enter current and proposed rent for an instant yes-or-no check against the 2026 cap, then optionally add a planned effective date and service method to get the latest date the notice can be served, in the same result. Add both and the result includes a printable notice preparation summary: computed facts filled in, blank ruled lines for the details the tool doesn't collect, and a direct link to the official RTB-7 form. The cap and deemed-receipt figures are pulled from BC government sources rather than entered by hand, and nothing is gated behind an email address - the result shows immediately, with an emailed copy offered as an optional extra. It is built by Perch, a BC tenancy compliance product; more on what that means at the end of this list.

Both calculators are free and answer the same underlying question from different angles - run your numbers through whichever fits how you already work, or both, since they cross-check each other.

Getting the paperwork right

Official RTB forms page

The tenancy forms listed by number page is where every official form lives as a free PDF download: RTB-7 for a rent increase notice, RTB-30 for a ten-day notice on unpaid rent, RTB-32L for a landlord-use eviction, and the rest. This is the one to bookmark instead of whatever version a search engine surfaces first - some circulating copies online predate rule changes, including the June 2025 change that made RTB-32L generation-only through the RTB web portal rather than a locally saved PDF. Downloading straight from this page avoids that trap.

If it goes to dispute

RTB tenancy dispute resolution

The tenancy dispute resolution page explains the four paths available when a landlord and tenant can't settle a disagreement directly: a direct request for straightforward cases (like an undisputed notice to end tenancy), facilitation, a full participatory hearing, or an expedited hearing for urgent matters. It links straight to the online application, which requires a basic BCeID account, and explains what each process can and can't award - eviction orders, monetary orders, or compliance orders, plus how those orders get enforced afterward through Supreme Court or Small Claims Court. Reading this page before a dispute starts, not during one, is the difference between choosing the right process and defaulting into the slowest one.

Templates for the parts a calculator can't do

BC government tenancy information sheets and toolkits

The tenancy information sheets, toolkits and resources page is a lesser-known corner of the same government site: free Word templates for witness statements, warning letters, repair requests, and incident reports, plus plain-language sheets on deposits, pet policies, and unit inspections. Several are available in Punjabi and Traditional and Simplified Chinese as well as English and French - genuinely useful if your tenant's first language isn't English and you want the notice explained accurately rather than machine-translated. No calculator answers "how do I document this properly before it becomes a dispute"; this page does.

Understanding the tenant's side

TRAC: Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre

TRAC is a registered charity providing free legal information and a Housing Law Clinic for BC tenants, funded by the Law Foundation of BC, the Province, and the City of Vancouver. It runs an infoline (604-255-0546), publishes fact sheets and template letters on repairs, notices, and dispute resolution, and offers a self-paced course called Renting It Right. If you manage tenants who push back on a rent increase or eviction notice, they're very likely reading TRAC's guides before they read yours. Knowing the same material they do makes it easier to write a notice that holds up, not just one that looks right to you.

Professional backup

LandlordBC

LandlordBC is the largest professional association for BC rental housing owners and managers, and the one item on this list that isn't free - membership is paid. What membership buys: a help line staffed weekdays, proprietary tenancy forms, a directory of vetted trades and suppliers, and the "I Rent It Right" training and certification program. It's included here because the help line is close to the cheapest professional tenancy advice available to an operator without a lawyer on retainer, and the membership cost is a deductible business expense either way.

What's next

I'm the one who built the Perch calculator listed above, and this list is where I say so plainly. The rent-cap check and the notice-deadline math used to be two separate tools; they're one page now, and the printable notice summary is the newest piece. Still missing is the part a static page can't do on its own: an email that reminds you before next year's serve-by date arrives, instead of the check happening only when you remember to run it. If you want to hear when reminders ship, request early access - the same page where I'm recruiting a handful of BC property managers as design partners.

Quick links

• BC government Rent Increase Calculator - official, free, date and amount by cap
• Perch rent increase calculator - free, no account, cap check plus notice deadline and summary
• Official RTB forms page - current versions of RTB-7, RTB-30, RTB-32L, and the rest
• RTB tenancy dispute resolution - process guide plus the online application
• BC government information sheets and toolkits - free templates, multilingual materials
• TRAC - free tenant legal info and clinic
• LandlordBC - paid membership, professional support