B.C.’s residential tenancy branch was told that a Burnaby renter was just a “quirky artist” but he has been evicted for not keeping his unit clean – leading to an infestation of cockroaches.
But he denies that he was a hoarder.
The RTB dispute resolution report details a renter who had been paying just $955 a month in rent in a unit he had occupied for about a decade. The landlord applied to the RTB to terminate the lease because the renter hadn’t lived up to one of the lease conditions that the home be kept with a minimum of health and sanitary standards.
The dirty conditions led to a cockroach infestation, but the tenant has refused to accommodate efforts to have a pest control company treat the place, a hearing heard, including moving his personal possessions.
“The tenant is also aggressive and rude with other occupants, the landlord’s agent, and with the pest control inspector,” reads the ruling.
The tenant refuted the accusations, saying that he complied with a request to clean his unit and that there was no “infestation.”
The tenant’s advocate agreed that the unit was “cluttered but that it is not a hoarding situation and not dirty. The tenant’s advocate stated that the tenant is a quirky artist that is sometimes misunderstood and lacking social skills,” reads the ruling.
The RTB arbitrator, however, disagreed. The ruling says the landlord had provided sufficient evidence, including multiple written cautions asking the tenant to clean up the unit. The arbitrator also found there was a significant risk to the landlord’s property from the cockroaches and that the tenant was “impeding” efforts to treat the infestation.
And, so, the RTB ruled that the tenant could be evicted.
