Finding a decent rental home in Burnaby (affordable and not a dump) isn’t an easy thing to do.
I’ve been living in Surrey, but I work in Burnaby and wanted to be closed to my job to cut down on the commuting time.
And so I’ve searched and searched during the past year with little success. All the places that were affordable were either infested with bugs, had no windows or full of drafts that couldn’t be fixed.
Until I finally came across an ad a few months ago for a basement suite that was bright and clean, with a price that was high, but right on the edge of my budget.
I couldn’t believe my luck.
But getting this place secured wasn’t easy. Once you find something you like, you have to go through a torturous process of filling out applications and supplying all sorts of personal information, plus submitting to a credit check. And then you have to charm the pants off of the landlord so they will look past all of the other applicants and choose you.
I put my best foot forward about how I was quiet, fastidious and did not drink (much) or smoke.
I seemed to hit it off with the landlord, a middle-aged woman who seemed to share my quest for quiet. I thought I had struck gold when I got approved to move in.
That’s when the problems started. I got through the terrible moving process and settled down to start a new chapter in a nice place.
The first week went well until the weekend arrived. And that’s when I discovered that the quiet woman I met turned out to be married to a pothead partier who thinks he’s a roadie for Van Halen.
He likes his music loud, his bong filled at all times, plus he drinks a lot of beer. Oh, and he likes to sing along with all of the loud music and stomp his feet.
The first night this happened, I just let it go because I thought perhaps he was just letting off some steam or celebrating some sort of achievement.
Oh how wrong was I. This has become a regular occurrence and my nights have become a brutal experience because the noise goes on well into the night after most reasonable people go to bed.
I finally got up the courage to ask my landlady about the noise in the most gentle way possible, but her reaction was to just shrug her shoulders.
“That’s just how he is.”
I don’t know what to do. It’s one thing if it’s another tenant, but when it’s one of your landlords – the people who hold all of the power – a tenant feels helpless.
I feel like crying because I’m now starting the process of finding a new home all over again when I thought I had solved a difficult puzzle.
Doug M. is a renter in Burnaby who didn’t want his full name used.
