| Presto | 05-28-2023 09:17 PM |
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...ike-after-sale
TLDR: Lease of land expired in 2022. Residents vote no to buy the land even though it would only increase their rent by 7%. Now, they are screwed because somebody else bought the land and are going to increase rent by 200%.
:facepalm: Quote:
Residents at a Surrey housing co-op that has been around for 40 years face a difficult decision after the land was recently sold to a new owner — agree to steep and sudden rent increases or move out by July 1.
Many of the low income seniors and young families who have been living at Totem Housing Co-operative are scrambling to understand if they have any other options.
Their situation comes as other renters find themselves in a similar bind as landlords are raising rents or seeking new tenants who will pay more in order to keep up with maintenance and other costs.
Judy Patka, 79, has lived at Totem for 15 years and has been paying $600 a month to the co-op for a one-bedroom apartment. She makes $2,100 a month and the new owner is demanding $1,600.
In 2017, Patka sat on the co-op’s board, which was in favour of buying the land even though some residents were opposed.
“We checked the rents in the area to see if we could increase our rents for a one-bedroom from $600 to $750 so we could try to save a little more and get a better mortgage, but (it was), Nope, nope, nope.’ ”
Since then, she has been worried that the land could be sold out from under the residents for redevelopment.
“So, I’m really frustrated and (ticked). Sure, go complaining now, but you know what? You have done this to yourselves,” said Patka.
Thom Armstrong, CEO of the Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C. (CHF B.C.), agreed that while the residents at Totem now face a disturbing outcome, it could have been different.
He said that the previous pension fund owners offered the co-op the chance to buy the land in 2017. At the time, it would have cost less than $10 million. The co-op was given some discounts, but there would still have been rental increases of between three and seven per cent.
“It was pretty reasonable at that point and they said, ‘No,’ ” said Armstrong, lamenting the missed opportunity.
In Burnaby last July, the CHF B.C. worked with the City of Burnaby and B.C. Housing to keep 425 units of co-op housing for seniors and low-income residents by helping the co-op to buy its three buildings when the owner was selling them.
Currently, it’s working on several deals with co-ops on leased land that are at risk of being sold to the private sector in Coquitlam.
“We’re trying to recreate what we were able to do in Burnaby,” said Armstrong.
The “tragedy” goes beyond the plight of the current families in Totem’s 58 units, but includes the loss of having those more affordable rental units in the future, said Armstrong.
The co-op had already in 2017 paid off its mortgage for the units in the buildings, but its lease for the land expired in December 2022.
The lease, dating to 1982, included the right of first refusal, which gave the co-op a chance to make an offer on the land if the pension fund owners were to sell. However, when the lease expired, a six-month extension offered to the co-op didn’t include a right of first refusal.
Richard Coulter’s daughter and son-in-law and three grandchildren have been living at Totem. He’s a commercial real estate developer and had reached out to the pension fund owners of the land in the late fall of 2022 with a plan for the co-op to assign its first right of refusal to a company that would buy the land and offer residents 24 months of not having to pay rent and then ultimately $50,000 to find somewhere else to live. He said he got a reply from a consultant working for the pension fund that said the land wasn’t for sale.
“Then the property suddenly was sold (in 2023) and there was an announcement that the rents were going up over 200 per cent,” said Coulter, who is meeting with residents to gauge interest in seeking legal advice.
The new owner is a numbered company whose director is Munish Katyal, who is the co-owner of Indo-Canadian Voice newspaper, who didn’t return Postmedia News’s phone calls.
“It would have given people a way to plan,” said Coulter, adding that the co-op buildings are in need of significant investment. “They are falling apart and not built to code with materials that are hazardous. They need replacing.”
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