Anyone Know a Good Residential Lawyer?
 

Does anyone know a good (and cheap if there is such a thing) lawyer in the Tri-Cities area?

Heres the story...

About 6 months ago, my tenant had words with the then strata council president. That cumdupster called the cops saying he was threatened with his life. No charges were pressed. My tenant has always maintained that there were words exchanged but no death threats were ever uttered. I called the management company (clowns) and they said that I had to speak with my tenant. I have and there have been no incidents since.

Today, my tenant got an eviction notice from the (Lawyer) Strata management company. I called their lawyer today and she said, "that if there is just cause (death threats), they can evict".

call up hongkongG and have him deal with them
problem solved

Go here: http://www.rto.gov.bc.ca/

Call their 1800 and you can talk to a lawyer for free.

renters court doesnt usually have lawyers... but you can bring one(and some do) and just about any tort lawyer, civil lawyer is good enough


just read your story ;) sounds like he needs a criminal lawyer

I've been googling and reading like crazy the last coupla hours. Thanks for the site Manic! I will give them a call tomorrow and see what's up.

Been reading the BC Strata Property Act and it says they can evict if the actions are continous or repeated. I don't believe they are and I'm gonna talk to someone on the strata council tomorrow. Just gotta remember to keep my cool and not drop any F-bombs.:)

Thanks for the info StylinRed, I keep him in mind....hopefully I wont need him.

Your strata fees paid for the president to hire that lawyer?

Is your tenant that good that you have to go through all this trouble to keep him? :p

unless he's a phenomenal tenant or something, aren't you better off just letting him get evicted?

if he stays, can you imagine the constant drama? they just hired a lawyer to serve his ass for fucks sakes.

sometimes it's just better to go away. stratas have very long and petty memories.

did u guys ever think that the tenant might be a friend of his

and that's why not all friends are supposed to be tenants.

i'm saying this as a guy who has a friend renting his condo. i have tons of buddies. about 3 of them i'd rent my condo too.

Unless you know him on a personal level, you're better off with him getting evicted.
"help" him, but who gives a shit.

Find a new tenant and price gouge another $50 for rent from the new guy.

Sometimes the principal is greater then the financial cost. Maybe the OP is fighting on that alone? if so more power to him, been there done that.

I'm no lawyer, but how does the strata evict someone? They don't own the property, nor are they the landlord (or even an agent representing the landlord). Do they even have a right to evict a renter? I could understand maybe filing a police report and/or charges for the death threat (if it even happened) but I would think evicting him would be something only the landlord could do.

I didn't think so either. Thats why I was so surprised when I got a call from him saying that they left an eviction notice on his door.

Taken from the BC Strata Property Act:

Eviction by strata corporation
138 (1) A repeated or continuing contravention of a reasonable and significant bylaw or rule by a tenant of a residential strata lot that seriously interferes with another person's use and enjoyment of a strata lot, the common property or the common assets is an event that allows the strata corporation to give the tenant a notice terminating the tenancy agreement under section 47 [landlord's notice: cause] of the Residential Tenancy Act.



As some of you have guessed, my tenant is a family friend. He can get a little excited sometimes but I can't see him threatening someone with their life. He maintains that he felt he was being discriminated against by the accused. Probably not the smartest thing to do, he got in his face one night and asked him what his problem was. Unfortunately, the dude that he called out, was at the time the strata president. He apparantly ran away like a little bitch, called the cops and told the management company that he received death threats.

From my biased perspective, the eviction stems from one person getting embarassed because someone challenged him. In his mind, he had built himself up a false sense of authority from being on the strata council. It has obviously been eating him up inside for awhile, so much that he manufactures lies months later, in hopes of getting rid of my tenant.

Anyways, my tenant is going to the Residential Tenancy branch tomorrow to file a formal dispute against the strata. I'm glad that is he is doing this, it shows that he isn't willing to back down from anyone. I hope he wins and gets a formal apology from them. I have no love for the strata council or the current management company. They have shown me in this whole process to be petty, arrogant and unwilling to listen to anybody's opinion but their own.

Damn, all this drama is really cutting into my dream of becoming a slumlord ;)