LANDLORDS NOT CONSULTED ON PROPOSED GROW-OP BYLAW

Chilliwack landlords were not asked for their input on a proposed marijuana
grow-op bylaw that puts the onus on them to keep their rental properties
free of illegal activities.

Landlord Lawrence Engelsman says the city has a list of rental properties
and could have contacted landlords, "the people who are at the front lines"
of the battle against marijuana grow-ops, before going ahead with the
proposed bylaw.

City councillors have referred the bylaw, which carries a $10,000 fine for
landlords who fail to keep their premises free of grow-ops and mandatory
cleanup conditions if one is discovered, to the public safety committee for
review after it was given first reading on Feb. 2.

"We don't want to see any grow-ops in our houses," says Mr. Engelsman, a
life-long Chilliwack resident, but he says the proposed bylaw places
responsibility "unfairly" on landlords.

"It's a huge problem throughout all of Chilliwack, the whole province," he
says. "I don't understand why the onus has to be on the landlords."

But Mayor Clint Hames says landlords can avoid the fines and fees in the
proposed bylaw simply by screening their tenants more carefully and
checking their rental properties more often to ensure no illegal activities
are taking place.

"Landlords can't simply wash their hands," he says, when a grow-op is
discovered on their premises. The proposed bylaw is "consistent with just
about every other in province," he adds, "we're just implementing what
everybody else has."

The mayor also says a well-advertised forum for landlords was held earlier
by the city to inform them how to protect themselves from tenants who use
their premises for grow-ops, but few attended the meeting.

However, the mayor says he's still willing to meet with any landlord to
talk about the proposed bylaw or hold a public information meeting.

Mr. Engelsman says he only learned about the bylaw from landlord Tony
Rapaz, who says he was "shocked" when he first read about it in The Progress.

Continued: LANDLORDS/ p6

Mr. Rapaz fired off a letter to the mayor saying he agrees that grow-ops
are unacceptable, but in his 25 years as a landlord "I have not yet rented
a house in which I suspect any illegal operations will occur.

"All the tenants are very sweet and very good at buttering the landlords at
the beginning," he says. But he adds, "By the time the landlord realizes
what is going on, it's too late. It's a nightmare to get them out."

He predicted that if the bylaw is approved, rents would rise or landlords
would tear down rental properties, which would decrease local
accommodations for low-income families.

He says the cost of clean-up and inspection fees proposed in the bylaw
would bite into the already-thin profit margins landlords rely on.

"It's much cheaper for me to grab a bulldozer and knock them down, but that
will put families on the street," he says. "Welfare today is tighter than
ever before. A lot of people are going to be in a major pinch."

Mr. Engelsman agrees it would be cheaper to bulldoze his rental properties.

"When the revenue isn't there, it's just a losing proposition," he says.

And landlords won't have an easy time abiding by the bylaw requirement to
inspect rental premises to ensure no illegal operations are taking place,
he says.

Tenants must be given 24-hour notice by landlords before an inspection, he
says, which gives them "quite a bit of time" to remove an illegal operation.

When he suspected one of his renters was growing marijuana, by the time he
gave the required inspection notice "I went in there and everything looked
great," he says.

Mayor Hames says he "appreciates" the difficulty landlords are facing under
new rental legislation in regard to inspections, "but there's nothing to
stop them from knocking on the door and checking things.

"You can tell pretty much just going up to houses like that from the smell
.. there's a problem," he says.