My recent series of columns about renters and landlords has brought out some homeowners complaining that there are too many items about renters being victimized.
“Talk to more landlords,” one landlord wrote.
Well, I have and that led to this column about the “tenant from hell” but renters are just more outspoken about their issues.
Like Sarah, who has been dealing with a “bully” landlord who likes to intimidate her and the other tenants of their Burnaby rental house.
Sarah moved in last year despite some red flags during her interview with the landlord.
“He was very aggressive with his questions and had zero patience for my questions about the home,” Sarah said. “But I didn’t have a lot of options because at that point of the pandemic, there weren’t many places available and I needed housing right away.”
So, Sarah looked past the red flags and moved into the house, which was pretty rundown and in need of repair. The problem is how the landlord deals with such issues as collecting the rent or answering virtually any question.
“I’ve tried just texting politely,” Sarah said. “But then he shows up at the door to my room and he has these two vicious pet pit bulls on leashes. He’ll have this smirk on his face and he’ll ask, ‘So, you have a complaint?’ Like he knows how hard it is for a person with two dogs snarling at you. These dogs are growling away and so I have trouble getting the words out. It’s terrible. He even brings them when he collects the rent. I’ve asked to get set up on direct deposit, but he refuses.”
Sarah says that there have been a couple of instances in which the dogs are loose in the house.
“I’ll be trying to leave the house and I can hear their nails scurrying on the floor and them barking because they can hear me,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to be scared to leave my room.”
Disgusting. Pathetic. Outrageous. Just total bully behaviour, something that so many renters say has been happening to them.
There was another recent case in which a renter posted a photo of a month’s notice to end tenancy served to them by their landlord. The letter seems to be the culmination of an ongoing dispute between a person named Cole and their landlord relating to utility usage during the summer heat dome. The reason for the notice? That Cole had allegedly “significantly interfered with or unreasonably disturbed another occupant or the landlord.” Next to this option on the notice of eviction the landlord wrote in brackets “abussing [sic] electricity.”
The landlord wrote in the notice that the fan in the living room seemed to be “running on all day and night.” The notice again cites utility costs as the reason for eviction.
“You complained about heat wave but I've been renting my place for many years and no one put any air conditioner/fan in the suite except you,” the landlord writes. “The suite is facing the east side of the house so it's cooler during daytime. Also this is not included to our agreement to have air conditioning in the suite [sic].”
Imagine trying to evict someone for using a fan during a heat wave that killed hundreds of people.
Sure, I get that there are bad tenants, but stop trying to silence renters.
- With reporting by Cameron Thomson, Vancouver is Awesome
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
