‘Bad situation’: Vancouver man fighting eviction from his home of 16 years

Renters of a Mount Pleasant building are calling out their landlord and demanding action over what they say is a wrongful eviction.

Keir Nicoll has been a tenant of the building on Glen Drive in Vancouver for 16 years. He currently pays $800 a month for his one-bedroom apartment and is on disability.

He told Global News he was offered $20,000 from the landlord to move out of the building so a live-in caretaker could move in.

“On the surface, it seems appealing that you would want to take money from people if they were offering but the reality of the situation is that money would be gone in a year in rent and then I would be stuck being homeless again,” he said.

“And it makes me kind of mad that the landlords have all this money they can just throw around and they don’t need it and I don’t like it.”

1:04 Tenants protest against eviction and AirBnB suites

Tenants of the building say a caretaker isn’t needed for a 12-unit building and that a couple of the suites are being rented out on Airbnb.

They are demanding that the eviction be dropped. On Tuesday morning, a number of tenants tried to confront their landlord and were joined by members of the Vancouver Tenants Union.

Nicoll said it seems as if the landlords can do “whatever they want” in the hopes that a person will move out and then the landlords can put up the rent by as much as they want.

“So it’s really out of control,” he said. “It’s a bad situation for all of us, I think.”

Nicoll added that when the company, Glen Drive Apartment Ltd. bought the building they started raising the rents.

“One or two people have been here for several years and their rents’ around $1,500 or something like that, which isn’t totally outrageous, but in some of the other apartments in this building, they’re now asking $5,000 for a one-bedroom, $4,000 for a bachelor’s and this is obviously explicitly for people who have saved up money, want to travel and live in a city like Vancouver for a short period of time.”

He said it’s not a reflection of the people who actually live in Vancouver and call the city home.

1:58 B.C. eviction capital of Canada

“I think there is no justifiable reason you would move a caretaker into a 12-unit building and there is no justifiable reason you would move a caretaker into a building and kick out the tenant who is paying the least if you didn’t want to jack up the rents,” Sydney Ball with the Vancouver Tenants Union said Tuesday.

“There are two empty suites they could use instead, there are two suites that are on Airbnb they could easily take off Airbnb so their excuse of moving in a caretaker I think is complete nonsense.”

Nicoll agreed, saying he said he does not understand why he has to vacate his apartment.

“I would probably have to put my stuff in storage and stay with friends,” he said if he is forced to leave. “I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be a burden on other people… My autonomy is going to be limited by that.”

Global News reached out to Glen Drive Apartment Ltd. whose sole director is listed as Stanley Dee. He is also the founder of Deecorp Properties.

No one responded to our request for comment.

Nicoll has a hearing at the Residential Tenancy Branch on Thursday and is hoping he won’t have to pack his bags anytime soon.