Two separate tenants renting basement suites on opposite sides of Burnaby have been forced to pay lawyers to stop their landlords from breaking the law.
The law prevents landlords from charging fees for their tenants for the privilege of parking on a public street of front of their homes.
But that’s what two different landlords have tried, according to the tenants who contacted me separately.
One wrote to me a month ago and I hadn’t had a chance to write about this case yet. I was prompted when a different tenant wrote to me in the past couple of days about her battles with a sneaky landlord.
The first tenant said that their landlord warned them when they were presented with a lease that they could park on the street but not directly in front of their house. The landlord didn’t provide parking on the actual property where they were renting an illegal suite.
“I was told that if I parked in front of the house, then she would call the city to have me ticketed or towed,” the tenant said. “But then she said if I wanted to pay an extra $125, I could park there anytime I wanted without having to worry about it. It was horrifying to hear but at the time I was pretty desperate to find a place to live due to a breakup and so I foolishly agree to it. I thought it was just cruel, but then I found out that landlords can’t actually do this.”
The tenant presented her landlord with a lawyer’s letter saying that they need to be paid back the previous money paid or legal action will escalate. The landlord has since complied.
A different Burnaby renter said the street parking was part of the rent and that, again, is a big error and led to the tenant having a lawyer present an official letter to stop it.
“When I spoke with (a city inspector) he said the landlord can’t ‘include’ street parking in our rent/agreement if they aren’t actually providing a space on the property itself. I even brought this up to the landlord yesterday, and that’s when she started yelling at me and said “YOU WANT TO PARK IN MY GARAGE!” …which I never stated, nor did my lawyer ever state to them in his letter. All we both said to them was that they can’t charge us to park on the street, but the landlord completely twisted it. So now my landlord has started parking her car in their garage and had other people come here and park unused cars in their back yard because I guess they figure we’re gonna attempt to crash through the gate and put our own car back there LOL. It’s completely ridiculous.”
Landlords renting out basement suites should be reminded that they owe their tenants parking space on their own properties. It’s the least they can do.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
