Editor:
Landlords have been all been painted with the same brush. Not all of them are ruthless.
My friend has lived in a lowrise apartment in south Vancouver for over 30 years. The landlord wants to keep her, as she is a good tenant who maintains her suite.
Her rent is below $1,000 per month. Another friend has rented a suite in an East Vancouver house for over 26 years. The landlord has provided garden plots and extended the fire escapes so each suite has a small balcony. These are things the landlord chose to do to make the environment enjoyable.
Most of the other tenants have been there for over 10 years. The landlord does increase the rent yearly to the allotted amount. After all, he has to contend with yearly increased home taxes, insurance, heat, electricity, maintenance, plumbing repairs and repairs. If the landlord did not do this, he would be forced to subsidize these expenses and with time these suites would be gone.
As for the eviction process, it can be long and costly. My friend told me that one former tenant did not pay the rent for the third month. The landlord had a difficult time tracking the tenant down. Finally, after three months of lost revenue and weeks of waiting, it went to a hearing and the landlord won.
Now the landlord had to hope the tenant would move quickly and not damage the suite. Otherwise, he would have to go to court. Not that easy to get a difficult tenant out. Yes, there is a housing crisis, but there are some landlords who are fair and have a social conscience.
Donna Polos, Burnaby
