Another Burnaby NOW reader who saw my column about someone operating an illegal mini-hotel in a local neighbourhood says the neighbour down their Burnaby street is doing the same thing.
Except that this one is “only” six rooms – instead of nine - that are being advertised as short-term rentals.
And the owners have added a special twist to make life more difficult for their neighbours.
“Our neighbourhood has been flooded with vehicles because – and this is bizarre – they won’t actually allow their guests to park on the actual property,” said Chet about the situation. “They have extra spots on the property but they’re forcing these guests to find street parking. It’s funny because there isn’t much parking on our street and now, especially during the summer, we had all these rental vehicles jockeying for space on our street. I spoke to one of these tourists and they were pissed because the listing didn’t tell them they would be fighting for parking. It’s a nightmare on our street.”
Yikes. Guess they won’t be getting a good rating after those visits.
Recently, I also spoke to Teddy, who says that his Burnaby landlord wanted him out under the guise of moving in a “sick relative” – something the landlord has told the upstairs tenant as well.
The idea is that they need to leave because the place will be home to the landlord’s relatives.
“That would be fine if it were true, but she’s lying about this because I know for fact that she wants to renovate the house to make more bedrooms,” Teddy said. “A contractor stopped by last month and she was running late and I was chatting with him outside and he spilled the plan. She wants to create these rooms to turn the place into an Airbnb mini-hotel. Guy mapped out the entire thing. With people travelling again, she knows she can make more money. She’s angry because rents have been frozen for so long so this is her grand plan. Well, that’s not fair to us so I’m looking at how to fight this.”
This is just another example of how people get unfairly evicted in Burnaby and beyond.
One of the first comprehensive analysis of rental evictions in Canada has found that both Metro Vancouver and B.C. see a significantly higher eviction rate than their counterpart provinces or metropolitan areas across the country.
The report, conducted by UBC researchers Silas Xuereb, Andrea Craig and Craig Jones through the Housing Research Collaborative, uncovered the major gap between rental eviction rates between B.C. and the rest of Canada after delving through data from the 2018 Canadian Housing Survey (surveying a total of more than 65,000 Canadians).
For instance, the five-year eviction rate for B.C. in the report reached 10.6% - almost double that of the next highest province (Prince Edward Island, at 6.8%) and almost three times higher than the rate in the provinces/regions with the lowest eviction rates (Manitoba and Nunavut, 3.7%).
Metro Vancouver, meanwhile, also significantly outpaced other major Canadian metro areas for the dubious honour, with a five-year eviction rate of 10.5% - again almost or more than doubling other major Canadian CMAs like Toronto (5.8%) and Montreal (4.2%).
- With reporting by Chuck Chiang, Business in Vancouver
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
