Letter to the Editor

We all know that Powell River has a housing crisis, but I also believe that we have suites, apartments, and houses available to local tenants that are not being utilized. Both the provincial and federal governments are failing landlords and law-abiding tenants.

White I write this letter, we are in the middle of evicting tenants for non-payment of rent. Five months are now owed. We are taking the legal steps necessary, but it is a long and arduous task. Not to mention costly.

The provincial government and BC Residential Tenancy Branch, the wait, has cost us another $2,800. Once we have the order and serve it, the tenants have two days to dispute. No dispute and we are off to the Supreme Court for our Writ of Possession and then the hiring of a Court approved Bailiff. More money as a $2,500 retainer is required, a mover/packer will be hired, in case it is necessary to box them up for removal.

If they are home at the time of serving, great, as they'll be boxed up and set at the property line. Not home, well then storage will have to be found for 30 days at yes more money and then should disposal be necessary, we will take another monetary hit. When the dust clears, we should be owed slightly over $10, 000.

So, this is where the two governments come back into the picture. Neither one is going to assist financially, but the expectation is we'll once again assist the housing crisis with our lovely rental suite. Not going to happen!

How many individuals and small businesses can afford to take this kind of monetary hit, not to mention the stress of the process and then say, "Let's get right back in there." Our lovely little suite will remain empty, another casualty of governments that just don't understand the impact that non-paying tenants have on the housing crisis. In chatting up our saga, I have learned of six other local suites of varying sizes sitting empty, casualties of inept government policies and backlogs.

Now this is what I see is necessary: A program much the same as FMEP (Family Maintenance Enforcement Program). A program that will assist the landlord, once they've worked their way through the eviction process, to recover the debt incurred.

Or possibly the TICA program which Australia has in place, a data base of responsible/non responsible tenants, which allows landlords to weed out the bad.

Then landlords, now with the backing of the governments, will once again feel confident enough to open their suites, apartments, houses to the rental market and hopefully we will begin to see the backlog in evictions decrease at the realization that there are consequences for actions.

The landlord win, the housing crisis wins, and honest, hardworking tenants win!

- Kathy Pedneault