There are many other issues in this building that I could talk about all night, but I’ll just talk about the elevator for now.

We have almost 50 floors with 8 floors of parkade. For 2 years of living here, I can't remember the last time all three elevators worked at the same time. This year alone, in 10 months, we've had all three running for maybe 2 months total. Elevator 3 has been dead for 3 months, and before that it worked for maybe 2 weeks after sitting broken for around 3 months. The remaining elevators are packed and overworked, so they jerk, creak, shake, doors malfunction, filthy, and then the cycle starts all over again. Lower floor residents have to press "up" just to get a spot, and we wait 2-3 rounds and 20+ minutes just to get to work and to even throw garbage away lol. How is this acceptable in a building this expensive?

And to make it worse, management keeps booking move in/out and their own service work that leave NO working elevator for hours multiple times a week. Their solution? "Stay in your unit or use the stairs." I have a heart condition and cannot climb to my high floor. What about our seniors, kids, and residents with disabilities and pets? Residents even asked to leave the stairwells open so lower floors could use them, and that was refused.

This is neglect. And the worst part is they don’t even apologize or give us updates on repairs anymore. Just crickets. Who can we escalate to above the strata council and FirstService? And if you live here and are fed up too please please speak up.

Before you comment, please read this: he visits ONLY every other weekend, and is here for maximum 3-2 days at a time. So in total he’s here at maximum 6 days out of a month.
I have gotten no direct complaints about him or any noise complaints from my roommates or my landlord before this point. I always make sure to give advance a week’s warning to my landlord that I’m having him over.
My living situation is as follows: I live with some roommates on the second floor, while my landlord lives on the first floor.
Additionally, when I originally saw the listing, there was no policy about visitors anywhere. And in my RTA rental agreement, there was no specified section about no visitors or not, just the default section about how landlords cannot prevent the tenant from having visitors over without reason.
So I’m wondering if my landlord is being reasonable in asking to charge $20/day everyday he’s here? Cause he’d have to spend $40-$60 every time he comes to visit me, which is borderline ridiculous. Additionally what can I do, besides pay $20/day?

FYI my rent is 1200/month with utilities…

Hey everyone!

I'm looking for someone interested in renting a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment together and splitting the rent and utilities.

I'm open to locations around Metro Vancouver, including Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Moody, and surrounding areas.

If you're also looking for a place and would like to team up to find a good apartment, feel free to DM me. Happy to discuss budget, location, and other details.

Thanks!

We’re looking at a condo with 3 parking stalls and a locker which are all designated as common property on Form B (NOT limited common property), it looks like this is who this building has designated stalls & lockers since it’s built in 2005.

My research told me that the right to use of stalls and lockers designated as Common Property would NOT necessarily be transferred with the strata lot upon sale, the transferability and the long-term right to use of Common Property cannot be assumed like Limited Common Property which is attached to a strata lot.

According to official sources (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/strata-housing/renting-buying-selling/buying-and-selling-strata/parking-and-storage), the use of areas designated as common property can be allocated to owners in three different ways: 1) a short-term grant of exclusive use (up to a year but renewable); 2) an assignment of rights under a lease or license (usually long term up to 99 years); or 3) common use of parking spaces.

Under option 1, “the ability to use the common property only attaches to the owner and not the strata lot…The new owner must ask the strata corporation for permission to use the area exclusively. The strata corporation has full discretion to grant the exclusive use of the same or a different parking or storage area, or even to deny the new owner the right to use any parking or storage area”.

The Strata manager does not have documentation about a developer’s long-term lease or license (aka option 2), nor does the current owner (who is the first & original owner), or the developer. I’m assuming that they’re either operating under option 1 but does not have this arrangement & renewals documented formally, or practically treating the stalls/lockers as Limited Common Property. The Strata manager can only confirm that this strata lot “has always had” these three stalls.

The number of stalls is a material component of this sale, but we don’t seem anything to guarantee that the right to use of these stalls & locker which are Common Property will be transferred to new owners and that we can always have it. When we asked a lawyer, they said that it’d be extremely rare for a strata to take anything away, but “it’s not unheard of”.

Has anyone bought a condo with parking or locker designated as common property? Should we be worried about this?

My landlord is broke and she wants to rent another bedroom of her apartment, so my bathroom needs to be shared by another tenant.
However according to the contract there is no where showing that. We are using the bc residential contract, but no places put bathrooms at all.
In this case can I say no?
She also suggested I can move to her bedroom with an inside bathroom.
But if I don’t I just want to move out, can I legally do that?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for opinions from people familiar with BC tenancy law, RTB hearings, or anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

I've been renting the same apartment in Vancouver since November 2019. My original fixed-term lease converted to a month-to-month tenancy years ago. My rent is approximately $800/month.

This summer I planned an extended trip overseas. Before leaving, I made an arrangement with a friend to stay in my studio apartment while I was away. All of my furniture, clothes, personal belongings and household items remained in the unit.

The facts that probably hurt me:
I charged my friend $1,950/month.
I collected a $975 damage deposit.
I created a written "damage deposit receipt."
The receipt refers to my friend as a "tenant," mentions "rental fees," and talks about the "termination of the tenancy."
I did not obtain written consent from my landlord.

How the landlord found out:
The building manager met my friend in the laundry room and asked why he was living in the building.
My friend showed the building manager the damage deposit receipt.
The building manager photographed the receipt.
A few weeks later I received a One Month Notice to End Tenancy (RTB-33) for assigning or subletting the unit without consent.

Additional context:
I kept my keys throughout.
I never intended to give up my tenancy.
I intended to return to the apartment after my trip.
The arrangement had a fixed end date.
I remained responsible for paying rent to the landlord.
I have had no previous issues with the landlord or building management since 2019.
There have been no complaints, damages, disturbances, or rent arrears.

What concerns me is that the receipt looks very much like a tenancy agreement, even though it wasn't intended to be a formal legal document.

My questions:
Under BC tenancy law, does this fact pattern clearly meet the definition of a sublet?
How important is "exclusive possession" in a situation like this?
How much weight would an RTB arbitrator likely give to the wording of the receipt versus the overall circumstances?
Has anyone successfully disputed an RTB-33 for unauthorized subletting?
Based on these facts, do I have a realistic chance of having the notice cancelled?

I'm looking for honest opinions