B.C. LANDLORDS TURN TO SCREENING COMPANY TO WEED OUT GROW-OPS

VICTORIA -- British Columbia landlords and rental property owners are
going to remarkable lengths to weed out potential marijuana grow-ops,
crystal methamphetamine labs, deadbeats and rogue tenants more likely
to trash their suites than pay the rent.

Credit checks and referrals are now just a starting point. Complete
credit histories, Canadian Police Information Centre criminal record
checks and a delinquent tenant list are being used and, if stung,
landlords are even launching "electronic surveillance" of former
tenants to monitor their financial status and then aggressively collect debts.

"The best way to get rid of a bad tenant is to not let them in the
first place," said Jan Robinson, chief operating officer of the B.C.
Apartment Owners and Managers Association.

A controversial new tool helping to bar the door is a registry of
problem tenants.

"The credit bureaus do not accept data on the pay habits of renters,"
said Marv Steier, president of the Surrey-based TVS Tenant
Verification Service Inc.. "So we decided to create our own database
of delinquent tenants our members can access."

The database contains information submitted by landlords, he said.

"TVS had better be sure the information they are collecting is
reliable and accurate," said Tom Durning, a spokesman for the Tenant
Resource & Advisory Centre, a Vancouver-based tenant advocacy group.

"Tenants should check to see if they are on the blacklist and if the
information is not correct, take action and hire a lawyer."

He says that a fair counterbalance would be a database of bad landlords.

Critics of aggressive background checks argue that students, the
unemployed and individuals who have old criminal convictions are
marginalized, unable to find rental accommodation - especially so in
the current rental environment: The 2006 Canada Mortgage and Housing
Rental Market Survey reports a 0.7-per-cent vacancy rate in Vancouver
and 0.6 per cent in Kelowna while Victoria at 0.5 per cent has the
lowest vacancy rate in Canada.

"It is a landlords' market," Mr. Durning said. "A two-bedroom
basement suite in Mount Pleasant rents for $1,500 and there is a
lineup around the block. There are a lot of good renters out there
and that means landlords are less willing to take a chance on young tenants."

Mr. Steier discounts the contention that young renters who lack a
solid credit rating or individuals who made bad decisions long ago
are being marginalized. Along with the credit and criminal checks -
which can proceed only after a prospective tenant has signed an
authorization that is faxed to the police - "tenant worthiness" is
determined by documentation potential tenants must have current, or
previous, landlords fill out.

"People ask me: 'If a person has put their fist through a wall at
their old apartment and cannot find a new place to rent, where do
they go?' I say; 'That is not my problem,' " Mr. Steier said.

TVS clients must sign a waiver, guaranteeing that criminal record
information and credit information is destroyed. To discourage
identity theft, Mr. Steier says landlords are encouraged to view
information online and then erase it. He says landlords are
prescreened and are required to sign agreements with TVS, encouraging
accurate tenant reporting.