The City of Victoria is hosting an open house this Saturday for homeowners who are interested in applying for a grant to install a secondary suite. Once complete, the suite must be available for rental for a period of five years. Albeit, the homeowner may charge what they wish for rent, but the fact that this may open up more rentals in the city could potentially cause some competition for lowering the pricing.
Or, is this just going to be a 'try to get rich by squeezing a crowded suite into your house to make a buck' scheme for homeowners?
Not to mention, said homeowners with these suites for rent will probably be first time landlords. Forget pets or kids or anything they else they might think is snotty, noisy and disgusting (including your Friday night poker guests or Uncle John visiting from Toronto). Pave the way to unnecessary arbitration hearings.
Public Information Session at City Hall
Who am I?
- Get Real
- Victoria, BC, Canada
- I am fed up to here (yes, I am tapping my forehead). 1 Part social vigilante, equal part unsatisfied customer, 2 parts 'I wish I could punch you in the back of the head for being such an ass'. Toss in a dash of intolerance for stupidity and a generous helping of impatience. Stew for almost 40 years.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have a sneaky suspicion that the first time renters they'll encounter will run for the hills asap when they discover that these new landlords will be overly protective of their property and not prepared for the disruptions to their quiet lifestyles that having tenants around will cause them. They won't be prepared for the high turnover because their tenants will not be the ones to let them know the reason they're moving is because their landlords are always in their face. I'm aware of suites that are sitting empty right now because of this very reason. The home owner comes to the conclusion the extra money wasn't worth the hassle of paying to clean and list their suites over and over again. Some people never learn. Tenants want privacy, and that's hard to find when you live with a nosy home owner literally over your head or beside you.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've called about suites for rent in the past, one of my first questions has been, 'What are the other tenants like?'. If I got ye ol 'Oh, actually, we live upstairs (or downstairs or within a 10 block radius)', I wouldn't be able to hang the phone up fast enough.
ReplyDeleteNightmarish experiences had by me and people I know who have lived in the same house with an owner have tainted me for life. That's a whole other post in itself...
I personally don't think it will help on the price of rent.
ReplyDeleteThey will STILL charge 800/month and all the while run businesses and complain that they can't find anyone good enough to work for 8 bucks an hour.
Victoria seriously needs a big slap in the face from top to bottom.
What needs to happen is get a huge lobby group nation wide to force governments at ALL levels to back off the draconian taxes that are laid on Apartment Building owners and to give incentives to build apartment buildings that have low cost rentals available and still be able to make money at the same time.
There hasn't been much of any apartment buildings for rentals is jerktoria (Victoria) since the early 80s maybe the 70s.
The house owners will take the grant money build a suit and charge an arm and a leg and solve no problems at all.
I have often though what would happen if 100,000 people decided to pick up and leave Victoria all at once just to protest the garbage people have to put up with here as far as housing is concerned.
That would have a HUGE impact but unfortunately people are brainwashed sheep and will put up with it rather than try to make positive changes to their community.
Victoria has turned into a city full of greedy self absorbed people and city council could care less about the housing costs, as long as they get to over charge on taxes.
The governments at all levels should carry the most blame esp the feds that changed the tax rules 30 years ago to tax apartment building owners to death giving no incentive to build rental apartments. This is why we have too many leaky condos in Victoria.