More people have been coming forward to share with me tales of fights over laundry in Burnaby rental situations.
One renter told me that the landlord removed the washer and dryer for using it too much, while a landlord said their tenant was doing laundry five times a week.
But both of those stories are nothing compared with a couple of landlords who shared what has happened when their tenants didn’t have to pay for BC Hydro.
Cade is a Burnaby homeowner who rents out a basement suite to a local couple for nearly $2,000 a month, which is a lot. The unit, however, comes with free Internet, cable and utilities.
It’s that last one that seems to have bitten Cade because he says the basement suite has been turned into a laundromat.
“Things went bad when I noticed my tenants seemed to be doing a lot of laundry,” he said. “I politely mentioned it to them and wondered if perhaps they wouldn’t do so much washing because they don’t pay for the utilities. They were really offended by that and so I think they’re trying to punish me now because the laundry machine is on all of the time. Like I’ve counted and sometimes it’s six or seven loads a day. I was watching closely and they now have their friends coming up with big bags that are filled with clothes. Some of the neighbours have come by as well. I stopped one of the neighbours and they said the tenants offered to let them wash their clothes for them. I’m being punished for asking a polite question. They’re laughing at me now and there’s nothing I can do about it because nothing is specified in the rental agreement. I’m hoping they get tired of this and back off.”
Now I have no idea why or how this landlord managed to get themselves into this situation of having the tenant not share the utility bill. That seems pretty standard. Perhaps they were just trusting that someone would not abuse the privilege.
But a different landlord named Scott detailed what happened to him.
“New tenant decided after two weeks they were not going to put hydro in their name, even though it was written on the rental agreement,” Scott said. “BC Hydro said because they were taking their name off the hydro bill that power would be shut off within weeks. B.C. rentalsman states that services will not be discontinued by landlord. So hydro went in my name. Tenants would not write up a new contract whereas they would pay hydro. They then refused to pay hydro. They were in a one year contract. They paid the rent, as they knew they had to, but refused, legally to not pay hydro.”
Now the tenants have friends also doing their laundry at the house and it’s cost the landlord hundreds of dollars in extra utilities.
Yikes.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
