r/vancouverhousing

Pretty simple—moving to Vancouver in the next year or so (from the US) with 5 pets: 3 cats and 2 small dogs. Is finding a rental going to be a nightmare or just straight up impossible? Any leads on brokers that have worked with families with multiple pets?

I’ve lived in the same basement suite in BC for six years. When I moved in, I had pets. My landlord knew about them, and there was never any written or verbal agreement limiting me to only those specific animals. Sadly, both of my cats have since passed away. After grieving them, I adopted two new cats.

Now, all of a sudden, my landlord is saying I can’t have them and has started threatening me with eviction.

What makes this even more frustrating is that this all started up again after he illegally entered my suite without giving proper notice. Since then, he’s been constantly bringing up my cats.

On top of that, he’s also gone into my bathroom and handled my personal belongings without my permission, and there’s an ongoing mold issue in the bathroom that he’s acknowledged but still hasn’t fixed. Instead of dealing with maintenance issues, he’s focused on trying to get rid of my cats.

The only “communication” I’ve received about the cats has been verbal. I told him I want everything in writing from now on because I don’t feel comfortable relying on conversations that can later be denied or changed.

After six years of paying rent and trying to be a good tenant, this whole situation feels incredibly stressful and honestly feels like harassment.

Has anyone in BC dealt with something similar? Can a landlord suddenly decide replacement pets aren’t allowed when there was never an agreement saying that? And has anyone had experience with landlords entering without proper notice and then turning around to threaten eviction?

I’m exhausted and just needed to vent.

My partner and I have been renting out a unit in Vancouver for a year (12 month lease terminated end of June). Our rent for that time was $X.

With the appropriate notice our landlord (who is a property manager, but is the individual who signed and initialed our lease without mention of being a representative for another individual with authority) presented us with a rent increase notice, to $X + 50.

We told them we wouldn’t pay that and towards the end of May provided written notice to vacate.

Our landlord / property manager then called us into their office to negotiate. By the end of the negotiation, we had managed to talk them down to $X - $150, on a month to month contract. I had the landlord send us an email confirming this, and responded to the email saying we agree.

A few weeks later they asked us to submit a notice to the accountant / the landlords boss so they can draft the amendment to our lease.

I submitted this on Monday the 29th of June. This is probably too late, but by my understanding this was just to amend an existing contract in line with an agreement. Note that I did not phrase the email as a request, I titled it a notice and made explicit reference to the fact we already had a written agreement and was simply informing them of this fact so they can proceed with whatever they need to do to produce a new lease.

Apparently, this is not the case. My landlord has told us that they were never given authority to make binding agreements, and that their boss has rejected the rent decrease of $150 and only approved a decrease of $50. Mind you we were never told about this.

Not that never has our landlord mentioned that they did not have this authority, in fact I explicitly remember asking to be sure that this was official and there is no way that the owner can reject it. They said that was the case. I’ve read over our lease agreement and there is no mention of this dynamic either. They even told me verbally that this is the first time ever during their tenure at this job that a proposed rent change they agreed to has been rejected by their boss, so it seems even *they* did not know this was possible.

So on July 2nd our landlord tells my partner that our ‘request’ was rejected, and says that they will have to go and communicate with the owner to see if they can resolve the issue.

They asked us if they can propose X - $150 for a full year term rather than month to month so they are more likely to convince the owner.

I told them they need to first make clear that they made an agreement with us. The only way we would consider a year is if they completely rejected it AND we were informed that the email he sent is not legally binding to a new contract, otherwise we would take them to the RTB.

So the question is - are we correct in thinking the email they wrote is legally binding, for the landlord and the owner? Does the email correspondence and the fact that we were never told that our landlord doesn’t have the authority to approve rent alterations ensure that we are entitled to $X-$150 on a month to month basis?

If it’s not a guaranteed entitlement, does it seem that we would have a strong case with the RTB?

Thanks for any input.

TLDR: landlord agreed in writing to a particular rent reduction on month to month term, without communicating it was possible that this change was rejected by the owner of the building. The agreement was apparently rejected. Do we have a reasonable legal case if we went to the RTB?

If you live in a tower near Joyce Station, what’s life like there? I see good solid condos in concrete buildings with gyms, parking, full appliances. Any nice walking areas? Any good produce stores or small grocers? Nice coffee shops? It seems congested and commercial to me.

I live at a low rise rental building by VGH. The landlord surprised us tenants with a 1$ increase to both the coin operated washing and dryer. It now costs 8$ per load to wash and dry instead of 6$, unfortunately the dryer does not work well and often requires two runs. Upon bringing this up to the landlord admitted to me in a phone call that it was because he was not able to raise the rent substantially enough with other units “to cover rising financial costs”. I am dumbstruck, I recently moved in here, rental prices are on the way down and interest rates are holding steady, and this feels like a shady way to gauge us of more of our hard earned money in a recession. Can anything be done?

Hi! I am a first time home buyer. I've recently been looking at The Legends building in Oakmount Crescent. I've honestly fallen in love with the area and even the building - but the age of it gives me pause.

It was built in 1996 and is not rain screened. It has a face-seal. It is also a wood frame building. However, the strata docs suggest that it is very well managed! No big levies or projects on the horizon either. Healthy contingency fund and strata fees.

I still need to do the professional inspection, but would love to hear from any locals who are more experienced with the area and the building. What have your experiences been like with the area and the building (if you lived in it or knew someone who has), I also welcome any other general advice.

Thank you!

If you think prices are coming down on rentals and there is more stock, that is true. However, what you get for $2200 compared to even two years ago is less space, fewer closets, no shelves, and additional fees for parking and storage. You will also have to live on a busy street in a poorly constructed building with lots of internal and external noise or in a lovely, spacious older building that has no in-suite washer/dryer, likely no dishwasher, and sometimes no elevator. Supply is up, quality and size are way down. I am more likely to leave Vancouver and pay my taxes to another municipality than I was two years ago.

We moved into a new rental three days ago. When we initially viewed the home we were shown all of the work they were doing to the place including removing carpets, painting. We were also told the plans to replace bathroom vanities, and repair the back deck which as rotting, have a landscaper remove the dying plants, have the house pressure washed, etc

Fast forward to move in.

1. They didn't do the construction work they said they would do. Replacing cabinets didn't happen. The old ones are 40+ years old and in such a state of disrepair and all we can smell is mold.

2. The house wasn't cleaned when we moved in. Construction dust everywhere, grime in the bathrooms and kitchen from whoever was here before. They did get a professional cleaner at our strong request, However it is so old it is not properly cleanable.

3. They ripped out the deck and didn't didn't replace it with anything. There is concrete rubble, broken wood and garbage, rusty metal over a portion of the back yard.

Essentially they didn't do anything. Do we have any recourse? I feel like we were lied to on the work they would do just to get a renter in there. We don't have money to move again. We also can't be breathing in mold spores for the next decade.

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!!

were moving at the end of the month theres been multiple months i was late on rent and didnt know the maximum fee was 25 so he charged me 100 and im now figuring out thats illegal but would anyone be able to tell me there experince with this and about how going to the rtb went for getting the money back?

At the start of June, I moved into a room in an apartment that someone was subletting. It was nothing fancy, but the rent was very cheap, and the location was good.

Throughout the month, I have been very clean and respectful. I have never left a mess in the kitchen, I have swept the floor regularly, and I cleaned the bathroom once a week (including behind the toilet, which looked like it hadn't been cleaned in quite sometime).

Imagine my surprise today when I was served eviction papers. On the papers themselves, there was no reason given. The guy just wrote "too many problems." He texted me later and told me that I was closing doors too loudly, and leaving dishes in the drying rack, which was apparently disrespectful to him since it meant I wasn't cleaning up. I have until August to find a new place.

I'm honestly shocked by what's happened. I'm not gonna dispute it, since I don't want to stay with this asshole. But I feel really upset and hurt. I've never purposefully closed a door forcefully, and I can't even remember accidentally closing a door loudly. And even if I did, why did he have to escalate straight to evicting me? I certainly never slammed a door. I've tried to be very considerate with my noise. I often get home late, and I like to have showers at night. I made sure to ask him if that was okay, and he said it was.

As for leaving dishes in the drying rack, I did that once. He told me to hand-dry my dishes (which I found silly, since would we have a drying rack?) but I didn't argue and I've been drying my dishes by hand since then.

EDIT: I should also add that, as far as "being too loud" is concerned, my roommate/LL would play music and listen to the radio in the kitchen early in the morning when I was still asleep. This didn't bother me, since I can tune this stuff out pretty easily, but I could definitely hear it.

Hello!

I was wondering if the situation with the building has improved any? I've been following and it seems the hotel is done construction. How about the lawsuit with the builder? Are you expecting another special levy? And the amenities should be done now right?

I've seen mixed reviews of the place online, and I've been interested in getting a condo there.

Some people on Reddit have said just stay away. Want to know if there's any redeeming qualities!

Hello everyone, would appreciate people's input and advice.

We recently moved out of an apartment. We did do a move-out inspection and walkthrough with the landlord, during which the landlord noted some dirt and rust that had accumulated on the window tracks and inner window frames. Admittedly, we forgot to clean the window tracks before the walk-through and they were a bit dirty. (I should note the rest of the apartment was reasonably clean and there were no other concerns noted on the inspection report). On the inspection report, the landlord wrote a comment that the window frames had "black scuffs" and we signed at the bottom to acknowledge that this was accurate.

Now our landlord has followed up, claiming that they've had a contractor to assess the apartment, and the window frames need to be completely refinished and repainted to a tune of over $1200. They are claiming that the window frames are damaged due to neglect and us not cleaning them properly during our tenancy. We were quite shocked by this amount.

A few more details:

1. We did a do an inspection and walk-through when we moved in and there were no comments on the windows. Tbh I suspect some of the marks on the window frames were there originally, but I didn't take any photos of them at the time.

2. We did provide a forwarding address, on paper, on the day of the walk-through and gave this to the landlord.

3. We signed the inspection report describing the windows, but the report did not specify any specific costs or dollar amounts to be deducted. I have not yet provided any written agreement they can deduct anything from our deposit.

I want to push back as I think the cost the landlord quoted is totally crazy. I'm very willing to pay for a cleaning, but refinishing the window frames altogether seems beyond the scope of what we should be held responsible for. My question is, are we totally screwed because we signed the move-out document describing the window marks? My landlord has been quite aggressive and unpleasant throughout our tenancy, and I am sure they will take this to the RTB.

Hi everyone,
I’m currently preparing to file a dispute with the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) against my corporate landlord in Vancouver for a severe loss of essential services and quiet enjoyment. I need advice on how much compensation/rent reduction is reasonable to claim.

Here are the facts of my case:

The Elevator: Our building was completely without a working elevator for 4.5 months (early August to mid-December). I live on an upper floor, so this severely impacted my daily life.
The Intercom/Buzzer: The front-door intercom system was also left broken for 2 full months (March to May), causing security issues and missed mail/deliveries.
The Smoking Gun: The landlord kept using the classic excuse that 'parts were delayed.' However, the City of Vancouver finally issued an official Legal Order against the building regarding the broken elevator. Incredibly, within exactly ONE WEEK of receiving the city's legal notice, the elevator was magically fixed. This proves they always had the means to fix it, they just didn't prioritize it until forced by the city.

We are moving out at the end of July (paying the full month under protest due to an 8-hour delay in our notice, and we are keeping full legal possession until July 31st so they can't re-rent it early).

Since we are filing the RTB dispute for the maintenance neglect, my questions are:

1. Is asking for a 10% to 15% retroactive rent reduction per month for the elevator period reasonable? Or should I aim higher (like 20%) given the blatant negligence?
2. How much should I ask for the 2 months without an intercom?
3. Has anyone been successful in proving 'bad faith/negligence' using a City Legal Order as evidence?

Any insights, past RTB decisions, or advice on how to structure the monetary claim would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Has anyone had any success as a tenant with the RTB with getting mold remediated? Our claim was denied and looking for next steps.