Water Cooler: Landlord rights against troublesome tenants

Needless to say, the tenants were enraged and demanded reparations from us via the RTB. They were successful and we paid them $10,000. I would do it again tomorrow.

The cost of allowing the process to run its course would have been greater. There were children living in that filth and social services were contacted before we went in. Unfortunately I got a more concerned response from the SPCA about the poor rabbits.

I have photos of the disaster we found in our house. Since that incident, we sold our other rental house and when our son moves out of this one, we will sell it too.

Brian U., Nanaimo: I was in the rental business for 14 years and the majority of it was dealt with challenging tenants who vandalized my property, were late paying and we’re full of every single excuse under the sun.

The rental tenancy rules are absolute zero help for the owner of the property and in one instance I even lost when a tenant took me to Rental Court because they wanted there deposit back after signing for 1 year, gave me 12 post dated checks and then after one month gave me three days notice that they were leaving.

I sold my last Rental summer of 2022 because I was fed up with the maximum allowable rental increase that did not match anything close to my increased costs of owning the property and the stress. The owner carries all the risk when owning a rental property and has no safeguards to evict a troubled tenant.

Don’t even get me started about the capital gains tax that an owner has to pay when he does sell the rental.

Oh, and here’s an idea for someone who’s having trouble affording a house. How about you get a long-term picture in mind, stop smoking and drinking, maybe don’t buy a $35,000 recreational vehicle and live below your needs. Perhaps don’t change jobs every 6 months and contribute to society instead of blaming society for your problems. I had a few good tenants out there that were a pleasure to deal with but the majority wreck it for everybody.

NanaimoNewsNOW: Our story on a rental property being torn apart by tenants resonated with a large number of people. After the story published, we heard publicly (through comments) and privately (through emails or direct messages) from several tenants who had experienced similar issues or felt they had a similar lack of rights.

It’s an interesting way to look at the rental squeeze in Nanaimo and across many communities in B.C. Why are there a lack of affordable rental spaces? Could one contributing factor be the willingness for landlords to put up their asset and absorb as much risk as many seem to be?

A great tenant is worth their weight in gold. A person, couple of family who treat your place like their own, on time with their rent payments and report any issues as they happen are the foundations of a positive relationship. However, like many things in life, it’s the minority who can ruin things for the rest of us.

It’s the ones who willfully damage or disrespect property. It’s the ones who either don’t know, or don’t care enough, to report or correct issues quickly. It’s the ones who are late with rent or worse, refuse to pay at all.

Laws protect them, but the laws and rules meant to support tenants seem to cause more issues before a solution can be found.

And the result of those issues? A perfectly fine property, apartment or suite, now sitting empty instead of contributing positively to an increasingly squeezed rental housing market.

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

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by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Water Cooler: Landlord rights against troublesome tenants

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