The NOW recently featured a local renter who was looking to find a new home for her family but was having an “impossible” time due to a lack of options.
The woman we interviewed really wanted to live in a rental house because she has kids and wants a backyard for them to play in.
Backyards are really important for many renters, especially if you have kids.
But not all landlords who rent out suites in the houses they also live in want their tenants to use the backyard. That leads to all sorts of conflicts in rental agreements that specify the use of the yards.
Some tenants have told me about rental agreements in which they are only allowed to use the backyard during certain times of the week, as in not on the weekends. Some of the agreements also get pretty granular about what type of activity is allowed.
Burnaby renter Connor Jackson told me that in his last rental home, he was allowed to use the yard from Monday to Thursday until 9 p.m., but could only use the “patio area” for sitting in a lounge chair.
“No outdoor cooking was in the agreement, which sucks when you want to have friends over for a summer barbecue,” he said. “So I could basically just sit and read by myself.”
Jackson felt that the agreement was vague about having people over and so he had a friend drop by so they could sit outside – this was near the start of the pandemic so he was being cautious about who he met with indoors.
When the friend left, the landlord confronted him to say he had violated the agreement about having friends in the backyard. The two disagreed over the language about people in common areas. Jackson still doesn’t think the agreement barred him from having a single friend sitting in a common area.
That’s when he found himself barred from the backyard after the landlord locked the gate that led to the back common area.
“It was petty revenge,” said Jackson, who later moved out. “I could have just hopped over the fence, but it didn’t feel worth it.”
A second Burnaby renter who tweets at the account @BurnabyExposed sent me photos of a lock on the gate leading to the backyard at her rental home. She is sure the locks were added out of revenge for her complaints about the home’s living conditions.
To her, it’s also a safety issue.
“They first used zip ties, but have since upgraded the back gate to a padlock. If there were some kind of emergency or fire, and the back way was the only way to get out, no one would be able to. They are basically holding us hostage.”
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
