Q. A few months ago I rented my unit to a nice young couple. There have been no problems until last weekend when I received complaints from two neighbours about screaming and yelling that went on most of the night. I went to talk to them, and a stranger met me at the door. He said he was one of my renter’s cousins and he and his girlfriend were staying with his cousin – “just until we find a place.” From glancing at all the furniture and other things inside the unit, I don’t think they are there temporarily, plus I spoke to one of the neighbours who said they had been there for several weeks. What can I do?
A. If you used the ROMS BC Tenancy Agreement, there is a very strong clause that states no additional persons can occupy the unit without your prior written consent and further that after 14 cumulative days in a calendar year, a “guest” becomes an occupant. You can give your renters a letter requiring the “cousin” and his girlfriend to leave. If they don't, you can issue a Notice to End Tenancy for breach of a material term of the tenancy agreement.
However, if you are using the government tenancy agreement form or some other agreement that doesn’t contain an “unauthorized occupants” clause, there’s very little you can do – you might be able to establish that four people is an unreasonable number of occupants (if the unit is a small, one bedroom suite) or persuade your renters to require the occupants to move, but if they don’t agree, you might be stuck with all four of them for the long term!
-- LandlordMentor
"Just until we find a place" could also apply to squatters. My parents' tenants moved out and were supposed to leave the keys in the suite while my folks were away. My parents hadn't found new tenants to replace the old ones, but when my parents returned, a new tenant had moved in, changed the locks, didn't answer the door, and had a big, loud dog inside.
ReplyDeleteWe have no leads from the previous tenants on the identity of the trespassers. So how do I help my parents with this situation?
Hi Ian,
ReplyDeleteYour situation is a bit different . . . We would say that the relationship between your parents and the person occupying the rental unit is not covered by the Residential Tenancy Act because a) there was no intent on your parents part to rent the unit to him, b) there has been no money exchanging hands, not to mention c) there is no rental agreement.
It would be good to go and talk to this person, explaining that they are there illegally and they must leave soon. Though we wouldn't advocate removing someone's possessions and putting them outside, we'd like to point out that you wouldn't really have any guidelines on how to remove the "squatter."
Would this not be considered "trespassing" under the criminal code?
ReplyDeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteI apologize, but I don't know the criminal code! But as I mentioned, if it is a ROMS BC tenancy agreement it could be considered a breach at the very least. (You may recommend talking to a lawyer or police officer about the criminal code part?)
In RTB Decision 1555_032010, the DRO concluded that the Term regarding 14 days "was not compliant with the Act in that it is overly restrictive and entails an intrusive role for the landlord in monitoring, for each calendar year, every visitor of every tenant, while tabulating the duration and frequency of each guest's visit."
ReplyDeleteWhen I attempted to monitor how many times a guest was visiting my tenant and staying overnight, in a recent decision, the DRO concluded that I was in breach of Sections 28 and 30 of the Act.
Should the "14 cumulative days" term, therefore, be removed from the Agreement or revisited with the RTB for approval?
Hello,
ReplyDeleteThis is the first I've heard of this... Would you mind faxing or emailing us this decision?
Many thanks!
Sorry for the long delay in replying! Here's the link for the decision 1555_032010:
ReplyDeletehttp://datafind.gov.bc.ca/query.html?qt=cumulative+&charset=utf-8&nh=25&style=rtb&rf=1&qp=url%3Ahousing.gov.bc.ca%2Frtb%2Fdecisions&col=bcgovt&col=blogs&col=govdaily&col=nrmweb&col=qlinks
I will send you mine by email.
I forgot to mention that you have to click on 27 Aug 2010.
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts on this Adviser?
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteCould you potentially send me an email? I'm not sure what you're referring to, and I've received three decisions in the past six weeks on this topic... Thanks so much! (I'm at cludwar@romsbc.com.)
Talk to you soon!
Hi, Adviser,
ReplyDeleteI sent you an email today. You might also be interested in what Margaret Carter-Pyne wrote about the decision I received at http://www.residentialtenancylawbc.ca/2012/05/
Thanks for taking an interest in this issue. I think the clause in the agreement that addresses it needs revisiting.
Regards,
PJ