Adventures In Property Management: Evicting Someone

To all those out there who have never owned or managed property, this post might come as a shocker. To those that have, a few sympathetic face-palms might be in order. Make sure your hands are clean and your makeup set in place before proceeding.

Evicting someone.

Should be pretty straightforward, right? Someone breaches their lease, and so since the contract has been violated, end of story.

Right?

Nope.

Turns out, in everything BUT property management, a variation of the above process takes place. But in property management, everything has a PROCESS. Because the unit being misused, abused, or not being paid for is that person's "HOME". And we can't take away someone's "home".

Never mind the fact that they haven't paid rent.

Or that they live like an animal.

Or that they're an all around, sketchy, not good person.

It's their "home".

So. In a nutshell, here is the process, in BC, to evict a tenant:

First, you need a reason to get rid of someone. The fastest way is for non-payment of rent. That being said, the process is still not fast. In a nutshell, here it is:

Step 1: On the day after the rent is due, you can issue a 10-day notice for eviction. If the tenant doesn't pay within 5 days, you can go and file for an Order of Possession.

Step 2: If you have all the relevant paperwork, you can file for what is called a "direct request". What that means is that the Residential Tenancy Branch will issue an Order of Possession without an arbitration. If you, like us, are following in the footsteps of some truly sup-par managers (to put it kindly), you have to file for "dispute resolution".

Step 3: Wait.

Step 4: Receive the order of possession, or the notice for an arbitration date. Usually, the arbitration date is at least a month away. So, not only have you not received rent, but you WILL not receive rent until at least that date. Joy.

Step 5: Serve the paperwork to the tenant.

Step 6: Wait.

Step 7: If you have an order of possession, a lot of times tenants will up and leave. And then you have
            a. Missing Rent
            b. Hauling fees (for all the crap they left behind)
            c. An empty, sometimes badly in need of renovation apartment.

Step 8: If the tenant doesn't leave, you go to the Supreme Court of BC and pay $120 for a writ of possession.

Step 9: Hire the Bailiffs. Pay them $2000.

Step 10: Wait for the bailiffs to come and physically remove the tenant and their things from the unit.

Now. If you have an arbitration, you have to attend the arbitration, argue your case, and then proceed with Step 4 onward.

Now lets say you have another cause for getting rid of someone - that they are in breach of their lease, or something.

Or, in my case, that their guests have repeatedly threatened to kill you.

You have to issue the tenant a "breach letter".

You have to wait 2 weeks.

You have to re-inspect the issue.

If it isn't resolved, you can issue and one-month notice to end tenancy.

However, one-month notices are misleading - they take effect at the END of the following month.

So let's say I issue a one-month notice to the tenant with the threatening guests.
He has about a month and a half to continue living there, and allow his guest to continue to threaten me. If you, like me, find death threats an unacceptable work environment, and call the non-emergency police, you'll find that there's not much they can do.

Because this is a civil case.

This month, I have the following:

2 writs of possession/bailiff appointments
1 arbitration
1 one month eviction notice for cause (an illegal tenant)


So next time you meet a grumpy landlord or property manager, just remember - this is the absolute BULLSHIT we deal with on a daily basis.

And now you know why fixing your oven that says the wrong temperature, but still works is not our highest priority.