Editor:
As if my landlord operating not one, not two, but three illegal suites (per the City of Burnaby) wasn’t bad enough, they have now removed their original mail box and replaced it with a locking mail box.
Page 6 of the Residential Tenancy Policy Guideline states as follows: “The landlord must give each tenant at least one set of keys for the rental unit, main doors, mailbox and any other common areas under the landlord’s control, such as recreational or laundry rooms.”
It is also a criminal offence under Section 356 of the Criminal Code to withhold/steal someone’s mail, and Canada Post has advised me to contact police to file a report and see if charges can be pressed if they continue to not allow me access to my mail. It would be different if, say, the landlords checked their mail regularly or had a mail box at my door - but they don’t.
So I have given them an ultimatum: Provide me with a key so I can check my own mail, which I have the right to do, or place the old mail box back by no later than 5 p.m. today - otherwise police will be called and I will report them for mail theft.
I am disabled and suffer from a severe chronic pain condition, in addition to chronic migraines, so the last thing I am going to do is get a PO Box where I have to physically go out to check my mail elsewhere. Not to mention not all companies/businesses will send mail to a PO Box.
In addition, the landlords also now expect me to put my mail into their locking mail box and are refusing to provide receipts because they don’t want a paper trail. Even if it has a lock on it, these mail boxes can still be broken into. This is not a secure way to give them rent.
These people have absolutely no care in the world for residential tenancy rules or federal laws.
B. Anderson, Burnaby
