Editor:
Perhaps we should look to the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) when trying to understand the housing shortage.
They have taken the rights of the property owners and given it to the tenant.
A renter phones in with a complaint, perhaps an eviction, and immediately is given a lawyer and advocate to fight their cause, usually at the taxpayer’s expense, while the property owner has to pay out of his own pocket.
Even with substantial evidence, a signed lease, stacks of documentation and photos showing just cause for eviction, a tenant’s “rights” have been violated. Then starts the months of legal battle, an added stress for the landlord.
If the property owner should win, then the process to have them removed begins, taking months, often without rent being paid.
The cost for a bailiff, removal of garbage, storage fees for six months of left items (tenant’s rights) and then repairing all the damage done by the “unjustly treated” tenant adds up quickly. This has left a sour taste for many landlords, choosing to sell, or raising rent, creating a trickle-down effect, ruining it for those desperately looking for affordable accommodations.
Maybe parents who didn’t teach their children respect for others’ property? Or the “me” generation feeling they are owed?
Or maybe the RTB should shoulder some of the blame for this downward spiral to homelessness created by a shortage of rentals.
I’m not saying there aren’t landlords from hell, but in many cases they are just trying to protect their investment, a right they have, and shouldn’t be penalized for being in a financial position to purchase a second home.
On the Sunshine Coast we are seeing more VRBOs than rentals. It’s clear why.
C. Knight, Sechelt
