Grow Up Renters

I am writing in response to the letter by M.G. about the horrible landlords.

How dare they inspect their own properties! I mean really, come on. How unfair is it that they actually care about the place they rent out enough that they would go to the effort to do monthly inspections? What a horrible person that evil landlord. Inconveniencing the poor tenant. I'm sorry but Wake up people. If you are upset at your landlord wanting to do inspections of the property once a month maybe you are doing something you don't want them to know about.

I am a home owner who a few years ago was renting, and we own a house with a suite now and have it rented out. We live in the other part of the house so we don't need to do inspections monthly, but what about the person who saved and scrimped and got lucky enough to buy a house and decides to let perfect strangers live in their very expensive investment. As a renter you should appreciate the reality of what you have to go through and sacrifice to be a home owner, and I think that you would be really ticked off if a renter trashed your house or let their pet urinate all over the place or had your nice renter set up a grow op. You should be very grateful that your landlord cares enough for the home and neighbor hood that they would do these inspections to ensure that the home is not a grow op, and there are responsible people taking care of it. I don't know any landlord including myself that has not had major problems with a tenant at some point. We recently spent $6,000 to replace flooring damaged by tenants who didn't care because "we are only renting", and the laws greatly favor the tenant, I know I have been to arbitration, and got nothing for the damage they caused.

Oh and on the matter of rent increases, well the Residential Tenancy Act prohibits rent increases on existing tenants that are more than, I believe, 8% per year, but you can all check that your self.

So to all you good people who rent, as a landlord I apologize if you feel like second class citizens. But if you take the time to really think about it, getting upset cause someone walks around the property and pokes their head in the house for a few minutes a month is not a big deal if you have nothing to hide.

M.C.