Editor:
I read the above column that your editor Chris Campbell posted about an obviously alcoholic landlord stumbling into bed with their tenant.
It brought back some unpleasant memories to a time when I was a landlord in Burnaby and had a succession of terrible tenants that made me decide to sell and downsize so I no longer needed a renter to help me pay the mortgage.
I am a single mother and did my best to only rent to women, but took on a few male tenants over the years with mixed results.
The worst was a student at BCIT who I thought was going to be quiet and studious but who turned out to be anything but. I could put up with all of the loud music but it was what happened after about six months that turned ugly.
This boy, who was living on his own for the very first time, decided that he had a crush on me, which was cute at first but started to turn disturbing. The way the suite was designed in this old house meant a connecting door that couldn’t lock. It wasn’t even really a door, just an opening that I blocked with a piece of wood. Most of my tenants didn’t even know about it.
But this kid did.
As the months went by, he started to get more aggressive with his affections and I told him it was inappropriate and that it wasn’t reciprocated. I guess he thought I was playing “hard to get” or something because he would back off for a while but then started up again.
Then one night I woke up and felt something behind me. It was my tenant and he was drunk. I could smell the booze on his breath. He was barely conscious and mumbling and I freaked out on him. I tried to get him to leave but he passed out.
I decided to take pity on him because he was young and so I didn’t call the cops. The next day he acted all embarrassed and I said he had a month to move out or that I would start eviction proceedings.
At first he agreed, then he resisted. The end of the month came and he said he wasn’t leaving and that I couldn’t prove that he had climbed into bed with me since there wasn’t a police report.
So much for being kind.
I was stuck with few options, but then this kid finally wised up and agreed to move out the following month. By then I was fed up and put my house up for sale.
Sarah Jones
