A few days ago, I shared a story about a Burnaby landlord who literally removed a washer and dryer from their own home because he felt his tenants were doing too many loads of laundry.
The idea was that this was pushing his BC Hydro bills too high and so he took away their ability to wash their own clothes.
The reaction has been pretty swift, with a few tenants sharing their tales of being hassled about their laundry habits.
“My landlord told me an adult should only do laundry every two weeks – as though she has any right to tell me how often anyone should wash their clothing,” said Tina. “If my clothes are dirty, I’m washing them.”
But it’s not just complaints about landlords. One Burnaby renter also complained about the other tenant in the suite they shared in the downstairs of a house.
“We shared the laundry room but had separate suites,” said Kyle. “The problem was this guy did all his laundry in the middle of the night because he worked a late shift. I’d be sleeping and suddenly the dryer would kick on with the sound of zippers rattling around because he was always cleaning his jackets. I had to get the landlord to institute set laundry times because this jackass refused to do laundry during the day.”
One landlord responded with her tale of shutting down the laundry habits of her tenants and was not apologetic at all about locking them out of the power system so they would comply.
“Read your story - that story is one-sided,” wrote Sunny. “I'm a landlady who lives upstairs and my tenant lives below. When COVID started, the couple started doing laundry no less than five times a week versus twice a week. The BC Hydro bill went through the roof. I myself am unemployed and did two loads, once a month. To both, they only did 1/4 loads because they were doing so much laundry. I asked them to return to doing laundry twice a week as before. Nothing changed. Fortunately, I have two fuse boxes. They pay their own hydro. There are two dryer outlets, one for each of us, but my outlet is the one that both of us used. I eventually plugged the dryer into their outlet, put a lock on the fuse box, so they can't switch it back. I told them that was done. They went back to doing laundry twice a week. Like the story (you wrote), there's nothing about access to the laundry facility (in the lease agreement). Person complaining thinks it's their right to abuse that privilege. My landlord friend pays for his tenants’ hydro. They abuse it while he's cooking, bathing, and sitting in the dark after 7 p.m. Some landlords are good, some bad. Same for tenants.”
Incredible stuff.
The problem seems to be about getting things down in writing in a lease agreement so both sides understand the expectations.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
