Residents of building plan to appeal mass eviction notices by Hollyburn Properties
Gerry Bellett and Chantal Eustace
Sun
VANCOUVER – Tenants living in the Glenmore Apartment building on Barclay Street say they are planning to appeal a mass eviction by Hollyburn Properties Group.
Twenty tenants have received eviction notice from Hollyburn, which claims it needs to do extensive renovations to their bathrooms that require them to leave.
But Craig Adlard, who has lived in the 40-suite building for over four years, said Tuesday the evictions were predatory and designed to get rid of tenants paying lower rents, so they can be replaced with others who would pay more. “It’s no accident that the only people to get eviction notices are those who have been in the building the longest, including a woman who has lived here for 20 years,” said Adlard.
Tenants who have moved in within the last two years weren’t evicted, he said.
“When a tenant leaves, Hollyburn have been renovating their suites and putting up the rent. What we have here is a mass eviction of people paying the lowest rents,” he said.
“They don’t need to replace my bath or plumbing, it’s fine and I’m happy with it. And if they did I would gladly move out for a few weeks while they fixed it and then come back at my present rent.”
He pays $1,176 a month to rent a one-bedroom suite in the building, west of Denman Street in a quiet corner of the West End near Stanley Park and close to English Bay.
“I’ve been told that if I left they could rent the place out for $400 to $500 a month more. This is nothing but a money grab,” Adlard said.
Adlard and 13 other residents planned to file an appeal with the Residential Tenancy Branch later this week asking the branch to overturn the eviction order.
“Hollyburn can do it because of a loophole in the regulations that allows a landlord to evict people if they plan to carry out renovations which make it impossible for tenants to continuing living in their suite,” he said.
Martha Lewis, executive director for the TRAC Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre, said the onus will be on the landlord to prove that tenants need to move out so repairs can be done.
“The landlord is going to have to bring the evidence showing they can only do these repairs if people are moved out,” Lewis said. “The courts in B.C. have said that if the landlord requires vacant possession to do the repairs then so be it, the tenants will be evicted.”
However, Lewis added, it can’t be solely about convenience.
When Hollyburn tried to evict tenants from another West End apartment building two years ago, a dispute resolution officer with the residential tenancy office said the renovations were not significant enough to warrant the evictions.
“By the landlord’s own testimony, the proposed renovation of the rental units requires nothing more than an electrical permit … [and] no drywall is being removed,” the November 2006 ruling noted. That building was in the 1400 block of Harwood.
Hollyburn Properties did not return The Vancouver Sun’s calls Tuesday.
Adlard said that with a near-zero vacancy rate in Vancouver, it would be unlikely for him and the other evicted tenants to find similar accommodation in the West End at the same rents they are paying now.
In the eviction notices, Hollyburn said the displaced tenants could reapply for their old suites.
But Adlard said he expects the rents will go up substantially.
“We have one tenant who’s got AIDS and is living on a medical pension. How can he expect to be able to afford a heavy increase in his rent? This is his home and he is close to where his medical help is. Why should he be evicted?”
