A Vancouver landlord with a history of public complaints from tenants is facing another controversy, this time from those residing in a recently purchased West End apartment.
A group calling itself Park Beach Tenants Collective issued a list of demands to landlord Anoop Majithia, the owner of Plan A Real Estate Services Ltd. on June 11.
The group is asking Majithia to drop its eviction proceedings against two residents and end alleged surveillance that breaches their privacy.
Plan A purchased the group’s apartment at 1925 Nelson St. in April.
“Since the change in ownership, tenants have faced bad-faith evictions and disruption to their peace, privacy, and the security of their housing. Tenants have formed the Park Beach Tenants Collective to inform and protect each other,” said Marie Weeks in a statement to media.
Weeks claims Plan A is targeting and evicting tenants to increase rents on units. In B.C., the government caps rent increases for existing tenants; however, there are no controls on increases when a new tenancy begins in a unit.
“Plan A's business model is to purchase predominantly low-rise buildings in the West End and flip units to rent out ‘boutique’ furnished short-term rentals. Plan A has abused loopholes in the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA), including evictions based on provisions of 'caretaker-use' and 'personal, landlord-use.' Once a tenant vacates their unit, Plan A is able to increase rents dramatically, with vacant units listed at more than double the cost of their previous rents, up to $3,600 per month.”
Weeks said Majithia is attempting to evict two tenants “with false accusations, and using opaque, misguiding language in an attempt to intimidate or coerce.”
Majithia faced similar allegations in 2014, according to several media reports.
In 2022, the Residential Tenancy Branch fined Plan A $10,000 for an illegal short-term rental arrangement.
Last year, Majithia was found to have conducted a bad-faith eviction.
Majithia told Glacier Media that the disputes have devolved to the point where he has hired a lawyer to ask the group to cease speaking to other tenants residing in other Plan A properties. He has also taken issue with what he calls defamatory posters (depicting him as a slumlord and devil) being posted in the West End by the group, “in the middle of the night like criminals.”
“My interpretation is they want to intimidate my company into doing what they want,” said Majithia.
With regard to the evictions, Majithia said the tenants have been misleading about prior permissions to include a second tenant and dog in their respective units.
Asked what the harm would be to add one more tenant to a one-bedroom unit currently occupied by only one person Majithia said his primary concern was being misled, adding the tenants have been given time to comply with their current lease agreement.
Majithia said his company’s policy is to install cameras in common areas for the security of tenants and the cameras do not violate privacy laws.
As for past brushes with the tenancy branch, Majithia said Plan A manages about 300 units in 10 apartments in Vancouver and there are bound to be disputes. Any decisions against his company are accepted and matters resolved thereafter, he added.
“As a landlord it’s hard to get good press; we do good things, we build nice building, but we’ve had some issues. … For the vast majority of tenants, we don’t have issues.”
