A Burnaby landlord is being called “heartless” for how he handles parking.
J.B. contacted me to tell his tale about the parking situation at the place he rents near Metrotown. J.B. lives in a basement suite – an illegal suite – and the landlord doesn’t provide parking on the actual property.
And so J.B. is forced to park on the street, which isn’t a good situation because there isn’t much available parking.
“But it gets worse,” said J.B. “Sometimes the parking space on the street in front of my landlord’s house is open and one time I parked there. I got a note on my door the next day telling me I wasn’t ‘allowed’ to park in front of the house because he wants it left open for friends and family in case they come by. It’s insane that not only does my landlord not fulfill his obligations, but now he punishes me for parking in front of the place I live. It’s the height of entitlement.”
J.B. is right – this is a wild situation. I’ve detailed some terrible parking situations in Burnaby, but imagine not allowing your own tenants to park in front of your home.
“I could just do it,” he said. “I mean, he doesn’t own the spot on the street but I’m worried about making my landlord angry and having him find ways to punish me. He really is heartless.”
Other readers have written me lately about how some landlords are not living up to their obligations when it comes to providing parking spaces to tenants.
“About the war on parking for rental suites,” wrote June. “The bylaw states that if you have a rental suite, you must provide off-street parking for the rental suite as far as I understand it. Maybe if landlords provided the required parking for tenants there would not be such a problem because I don't think the landlord be keen on parking down the street because there was no parking in front of their own house because someone else parked in front of their house. Just a thought. It might save nasty notes on windshields. I know I'm a homeowner who does not rent a suite out and do not park in front of other’s houses and try and have visitors only park in front of my own house.”
Amen to that.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44
