No one is blaming the rental housing crisis on decent human beings, be they landlords or tenants. I’m thinking this landlord (“Letter: As a local landlord, ‘my heart does not bleed’ for Whistler renters,” Pique, Jan. 31) read Pique’s recent deep dive into the dire housing situation seasonal workers find themselves in. No one said all landlords in the Sea to Sky are scumbags. A frightening number of them are gleefully charging as much as possible for substandard accommodation, but there are many lovely landlords as well. (Shout out to mine!)
To all those of you out there who are renting part or all of your home, and doing so at an affordable price and attending to the maintenance and upkeep of your unit—kudos. Just as there are good and bad landlords, there will be good and bad tenants. Both parties should have the time and opportunity to check references and make informed decisions; however, our overwhelmed rental market has both landlords and tenants making rash decisions they soon regret. If you own an income property but don’t want the hassle of dealing with tenants, why not look at a property management company that will do the hard work for you? This way you get tenants that are vetted with references checked. This also keeps your property from sitting vacant and unused in markets that are crying out for housing.
Selling your property is your right as an owner. Property ownership is out of reach for my family and many like mine. We earn good money and save as much as we can. But paying 30 to 40 per cent of our income to rent and utilities does not allow us to save enough. Please stop suggesting all we need to do is save our money and buy something ourselves. If we could, we would.
