A Burnaby renter is counting down the days until a hearing over her complaint that’s been filed with B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch.
And her landlord keeps adding to her case with one punitive move after another.
The tenant contacted the NOW with piles of documentation including damning recordings of the landlord admitting to not taking action on multiple grievances.
The latest is the tenant (the NOW is keeping her name private as she expects to be looking for new accommodations for her and her mom soon) having suffered with no power for at least the past six days.
The tenant says it’s likely that some of the breakers have blown in parts of the house, but hasn’t impacted the upstairs of the house – where the landlord lives.
“I’ve now been without power in my bedroom since Thursday and counting,” she said. “I can’t work as my computer/desk are in there - and there isn’t anywhere else I can move it to, can’t watch TV, and have no lighting in there. I’ve informed the landlord on three separate occasions that the power remains out, and her response to my texts is to stomp on the floor as loud as she can - so she clearly has no intention of turning the power back on. She seems to think her stomping around is going to bother me, but it doesn’t. I record her every time she does it, which will just be more against her when it comes time for the RTB hearing. For a grown woman, it’s insane how childish this landlord is.”
This follows a running dispute that stems from the City of Burnaby inspected the house’s multiple illegal rental suites back in January, including flagging washing machine as being improperly hooked up. The suite has also suffered from a lack of hot water for a long period. At best it’s “lukewarm,” the tenant says.
The landlord tried to blame the city by saying they were forced to remove the washing machine despite laundry access being in the written agreement. But the NOW reviewed emails from the city to the tenant saying that the landlord wasn’t being ordered to remove the laundry, but instead had to have the plumbing properly hooked up to meet its standards.
The tenant ended up having to hire their own plumber to assess the situation.
“He was able to move the limiter on the bathtub faucet, so the temperature is a lot better now,” the tenant said. “Not one hundred percent, but better than it was. He said there was a chance the landlord did in fact turn the temperature down, but the landlord refused to grant him entry to her side where the hot water tank is so that he could check - which I knew would happen - so that speaks volumes because she’s clearly trying to find the fact that she did something.”
The tenant hopes to get that money back in a ruling by the RTB.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
