LEGAL SMOKE AND MIRRORS PROTECT POT-GROWING TENANTS

We're confused. On one hand, regulatory bodies in B.C. tell landlords
they'll pay dearly if they rent to tenants who grow marijuana on the
property. On the other, landlords can't kick out pot-growing renters once
they're in.

This is the confounding conclusion we draw from recent events. And if
we're puzzled, how must landlords caught in these circumstances feel?

Last month, Surrey passed a bylaw permitting it to charge property owners
for the cost of dismantling drug labs and marijuana grow-ops found in
homes. The law is aimed at slack landlords who don't care much what
tenants they allow in. The RCMP said charging fees would be one way to
encourage them to more carefully select tenants.

On the surface, holding property owners responsible seems sound. The
problem is, at the same time municipalities wish to implement such
measures, the courts are effectively stripping property owners of their
ability to be responsible.

Human rights legislation sorely limits how landlords can screen would-be
tenants. Now, this week, B.C.'s highest court ruled that a man charged
with growing marijuana in a rented home at Britannia Beach, and who
received an eviction notice earlier this year, doesn't have to move out at
least for another month.

Ralph Fulber, his brother Ronald and his wife, Filomena, were arrested
after RCMP found marijuana grow-ops in three Britannia Beach houses.
Understandably the landlord which is PricewaterhouseCoopers because the
town is in receivership, tried to evict all three. However, the family
knew its way around the byzantine legal system affecting landlords and
tenants, and challenged the eviction before a Residential Teanancy Branch
tribunal.

An arbitrator decided growing marijuana in a rental home should warrant
eviction only if the operation could seriously damage property. It turned
out that Ronald Fulber only grew marijuana plants in a closet, and had not
installed the kind of extra wiring that creates a major fire hazard in grow
operations.

So, when the family was told to get out, Mr. Fulber applied to the B.C.
Supreme Court for a judicial review. After a convoluted series of rulings
and arbitration decisions, the Fulbers are still in the rented homes.

These contradictions are intolerable. People charged with crimes must be
accorded due process, but landlords whose properties are put at risk by
illegal grow operations must have a way of protecting their assets.

Governments, no matter what level, cannot expect landlords to pay for the
costs of eliminating grow operations when other bodies prevent them from
booting bad tenants. It's long past time for the province and the
municipalities to get their acts together and get on the same page.