u/GregMaate

Hi there! After moving to vancouver 3 years ago from New Zealand, I was quite shocked at the poor condition of housing outside the new developments. It seems like alot of the housing stock is very poorly maintained, which seems a little confusing as putting off repairs will significantly reduce the life of a house.

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It made me wonder if most of the housing stock is just land banks at this point? Basically waiting to be bought out and demolished by developers? I find it hard to believe anyone but a developer would want to buy a rotting house with moss growing out its ears for 2million cad 🧐.

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Just trying to understand why the housing here is so poorly maintained here compared to back home. In new zealand we are known for being very house proud, so the difference was very jarring.

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Thnx!!

Looking for advice on new tenancy in BC

Hi there! Me and my wife recently started renting a single family home in BC for the first time. We have always lived in apartments so we are pretty inexperienced with houses.

We were quite shocked after signing the lease, as the landlord immediatley told us there had been a previous rodent infestation 6 months prior. He reassured us that they had gotten rid of them and filled the holes in the house. We thought it was pretty shitty of him to tell us that straight after signing the paperwork ect. We havent had to deal with something that so we are quite upset and paranoid that the house will get infested again.

We noticed that there were some areas that had been filled with insulation foam on the outside of the house when we inspected in, but we are pretty naive with houses and assumed it was to keep out drafts. From what i can see insulation foam isnt a great long term solution for keeping them out.

We have also discovered that the Furnace is pulling in air from the crawl space and it stinks like old moldy air when its turned on, especially around the cold air intake vent... the room with the cold air vent constantly stinks like the crawl space under the house even when it is turned off.

We feel pretty upset like we have been fleeced by the landlord, and we dont really have a way out of the lease. I have asked them to fix the furnace, but honestly we would rather just find somewhere else to live..... we have both been pretty upset over the situation.

Any advice on best steps? Just stick it out for a year? Or find some way out of the lease?