In response to several of my recent blogs on Burnaby landlords, some have argued that landlords also have mortgages to pay.
That’s true and I’ve never said they don’t. I haven’t advocated that renters don’t pay any rent, just that landlords be willing to work with people who lost all of their income during the early days of COVID-19, and before the feds and provinces approved supports. (Although those supports don’t always help much with insane Metro Vancouver rents.)
As for landlords who have mortgages to pay, I think banks need to be more flexible with their customers.
But not every landlord has a mortgage to pay.
I’ve spoken with two renters in Burnaby – one residential and one commercial – who know for a fact that their landlords own their properties mortgage-free.
One tenant researched this when she moved into her commercial building a few years ago. The other was told this previously during better times by his residential landlord (who was bragging that his daddy had “given” him the house to rent out).
So, when COVID-19 hit and both tenants either lost their jobs or had their business closed due to the state of emergency, what did this mortgage-free landlords do?
Well, basically tell them there would be no breaks on rent, no deferred payments and no sympathy.
“It was pay up or get out,” said the residential tenant, who doesn’t want their name used for fear of reprisal from the dude with the rich daddy.
This was before the B.C. government banned evictions.
The residential tenant barely scraped by for April, but only after borrowing from a bunch of friends and families to piece together the rent. He still fell a little short, prompting a “tantrum” from the landlord.
May was little better with CERB, but not great because, as I said above, rents are so high. He doesn’t want to know what’s going to happen once the ban on evictions is over. He plans on catching up on the rent once he gets his job back, if he gets his job back.
As for the commercial tenant, she can’t believe her landlord couldn’t at least attempt to work out a deferral or agreement.
“The whole world is crumbling and this person has no sympathy,” she said. “It’s beyond frustrating.”
I get that the property owners still have bills to pay, but when you’re mortgage-free, you have a lot of flexibility compared with others.
Seems pretty callous to me.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
