Renters Evicted for Olympic Rental

Homes not Games logo Students evicted in time for 2010 Olympics

By BOB MACKIN, 24 HOURS

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2009/12/07/12072036.html

A landlord evicting tenants from her East Vancouver house said she would remove an Internet ad offering Games-time rentals. "That was a mistake, I totally overlooked that," said Mariana Gerenska, who co-owns 916 East 11th Avenue with her husband. "We had been exploring the market before that, we had more time." Gerenska, a learning developer with the B.C. Public Service Agency in Victoria, said she will return to the house to deliver a child. She claimed the space is needed for relatives expected to visit from Europe. An ad for the nine-room house on SportEventsRentyMyHouse.com said rent is $11,900 per week for a two-week minimum or $34,000 for all of February and March. Gerenska said she had just one inquiry from a prospective renter. She may still try to rent space if the house isn't full of relatives, she said. Simon Fraser University graduate student Susan Brown has paid $580 a month since July on a seven-month term. She said she received a Nov. 23 notice to vacate by Jan. 31. The form said the unit will be "occupied by the landlord or the landlord's spouse or a close family member (father, mother or child) of the landlord of the landlord's spouse." Tenant Sam Campbell, who also received an eviction notice, said he used a false identity to make an email inquiry about Olympic rentals to Gerenska. He said Gerenska quoted $4,800 for one floor of the house for a week. Gerenska said she does not have a $106 civic short-term rental permit. As of Monday, only 95 had been sold by city hall. An April 9 report to city council estimated it would issue at least 1,000 permits to landlords renting to Olympic visitors because of hotel room scarcity. Tenants allege Olympic eviction By Wendy Stueck, The Globe and Mail, Monday, December 7, 2009 http://www.ctvolympics.ca/about-vancouver/news/newsid=21771.html#tenants... Tenants of a home in East Vancouver claim they have been evicted so the owner of the home can rent it at lucrative rates during the Olympic games. Speaking in front of the home, tenants Sam Campbell and Sue Brown said Monday they were given eviction notices at the end of November. The two-month notices said the tenants' rental units were to be occupied by the landlord or family members. The tenants then discovered an online advertisement offering the nine-bedroom house for accommodation during the Olympics for $11,900 a week or $34,000 if rented for all of February and March. The tenants had signed leases that ended January 31, 2010, but say they had been told by the home's owner that their leases could be extended. The tenants said they have notified the provincial Residential Tenancy Branch and the City of Vancouver, which has introduced a temporary by-law and licencing program for housing rentals during the games.