When Tanya McCracken and Kelly Neufeld toured the Langley City rental house at the end of March, they noticed several issues with the building.
The couple made a list of things that needed fixing before their move in a month later, including rotten boards on the front porch, a hot water tap that didn’t work, and broken light switches.
The couple were in touch with a property manager and the landlord, and they say they were assured that the problems would be fixed by the time their lease started on May 1. The couple offered to have family do the work – they are related to electricians and plumbers – but were told that wasn’t necessary.
However, when they transferred their first month’s rent and walked in on May 1, they found very little had changed.
“That’s sort of when the panic started setting in,” said Neufeld.
The home, just off 53 Avenue and 200 Street in the area near Brydon Lagoon, is a typical older two-storey structure. But inside, the problems are glaring.
The home has no smoke alarms. There are two missing interior doors, and two more with broken or missing doorknobs. Several light switches don’t work, and there is no functioning light in the workshop-style shed.
The home’s water heater puts out scalding water, so hot it immediately steams up a room. The back deck appears to be propped up with a pair of long two-by-fours braced underneath it. There are ventilation holes in outer walls, some of which go nowhere – one leads directly into the back of a kitchen cabinet, and you can see outside when the cabinet door is open.
Wires protrude from one wall. Wood around the back door is visibly crumbling. A dishwasher they had noted as in need of replacement was replaced, with a unit that appears to date from the 1980s.
There is no railing on the stairway, which concerns McCracken, who is scheduled to have knee surgery soon.
After the tenants complained to their landlord, a workman appeared a few days after they had moved in, with a replacement door. He looked around at the problems, said sympathetic things, but left without fixing anything, McCracken and Neufeld said. The door door was not installed, because it did not fit, according to the landlord.
Neufeld and McCracken are appealing to the Residential Tenancy Branch, which deals with disputes between landlords and tenants, and they’re also considering moving all over again. That would be a major financial hit since they just paid for all their moving costs.
The house has clearly seen better days, with walls that aren’t flush with ceilings, uneven floors, chipped tiles, missing moldings and unpainted drywall in places.
“Cosmetic stuff isn’t our main issue,” said Neufeld.
She and McCracken said they’re worried about safety. Three of their four children are currently living with other relatives while they figure out their next move.
“We don’t feel they’re safe to be here,” said Neufeld.
“I have a dog and I can’t even bring him here,” McCracken said.
Landlord Russell Kent said that he had hired someone to do work on the home in April, but it didn’t get done.
“It’s not my problem,” Kent said about his tenant’s concerns. “The realtor rented it to them, and if they don’t like it, they can move out.”
Asked about some of the specific problems, including the absence of smoke alarms, he said things would be fixed.
“I’m going to get it up to date, for sure,” Kent said. He said that a workman would be coming the week of May 14.
“If they want to be patient with me, I’ll get it it done for them,” he said.