Vancouver tenants have no shortage of negative experiences to share.
While there are plenty of great landlords, many of them rent out units that simply aren't up to standard or fail to deal with issues as they arise. Sometimes it isn't even the landlords who are at fault; neighbours can create a host of problems, too.
But there are some pretty peculiar issues that crop up every once in a while.
A woman who resides in the Lower Mainland had a particularly disturbing incident occur while she was renting an apartment in her 20s. She responded to a recent call-out in a Vancouver Is Awesome daily newsletter asking for tenancy tales — the good, the bad and the buggy (plenty of rental horror stories are about pests).
For the purposes of telling her story, we'll refer to her as Selena (she has asked us not to use her real name for privacy concerns). She said the incident took place when she was renting an apartment in Burnaby's Metrotown area when she 20. The complex still exists and has three buildings that each have three-storey walk-ups; there are roughly 100 units.
After three months of living in the complex, Selena never had any issues—until she was doing laundry one weekend.
"I washed my clothes and dried them," she explained. "I came home to fold my laundry and after a few minutes a lightbulb went off.
"All the underwear I washed had been stolen. I moved shortly after this. So creepy!"
Not only was the incident disturbing, but it was also Selena's first time renting an apartment. After that, she says she "always swore I would have in-suite laundry."
When asked if she remembers having any creepy neighbours, Selena said she didn't recall having many interactions with them.
"After this incident, I felt really creeped out not knowing who would do this so we gave notice and I moved to a high-rise in Coquitlam. It has always stuck with me though and when I tell this story I now just have to laugh," she said.
Outrageous B.C. tenancy tales from 2021
If you've ever thought you had problematic neighbours, you might have to pick your jaw up off the floor when you finish reading the most outrageous B.C. tenancy tales Vancouver Is Awesome wrote about in 2021.
While some of them involve common issues, such as pest infestations, the degree of the infestations may make your stomach turn. Others are downright absurd, such as the tenant who masturbated so loudly that he got evicted for it, or the man who installed a buzzer to minimize noise from raucous sex parties.
Here are our top 10 most outrageous B.C. tenant/landlord disputes from 2021.
