Re: Strata owners worried over end of rental restrictions
Dear editor:
The front-page article in your Dec. 7 paper had some worrisome concerns, but I feel that most condo/townhouse owners are not aware of the most disturbing one.
I live in a 177-unit complex in the City of North Vancouver. When I bought my condo in 2005, we had a lot more resident owners than “investors.” However, over the years, due to the fact that we had no rental restrictions, investors now far outnumber resident owners.
We have approximately 105 investor-owned units, some owners owning 10 units or more, and approximately 72 resident owners. That means that the investor owners control the vote and resident owners can find their homes sold out from under them if the investors vote to sell the property to a developer. The courts will usually agree to this if there is approximately 80 per cent of owners wanting to sell.
An investor owner is very different than a resident owner. To the resident owner, this is their home. To an investor, it is a profit-making situation, and if they see an opportunity to make more profit by selling to a developer, then for the most part, they really care very little about their tenants that will be without a home or for the resident owners who will be forced from their homes. That is the current situation that I am facing and it is before the courts.
To me, that is the biggest problem with strata owners not being able to put a halt to the number of investor owners.
Before you know it, investor owners control the show. The wealthy win again. I am sure the Premier probably did not think of the devastating effect this could have on the little condo owner while he sits in his cozy detached home.
April MacKenzie-Moore
North Vancouver
Dear editor:
David Eby’s plan to force non-rental stratas into the rental market falls short.
How about any single-family house with a basement suite must rent the suite? Heck, how about any single-family house without a basement suite must build a rental suite? Later, Eby can zero in on the spare bedrooms upstairs.
Robert Thompson
Lower Lonsdale, North Vancouver
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