Downtown Suites

At Downtown Suites, we always act with compassion and empathy to the tenants when delivering an end of tenancy notice on behalf of an owner. At the same time, we want to ensure everything happens without any loss to the property owners if at all possible. An important factor is making sure we have timely delivery of any End of Tenancy Notice, according to the BC Residential Tenancy Act’s stipulations.

Notice is not always considered “received” on the date is it sent, depending on the way this notice is delivered.

Received on the day of delivery: When a copy of the notice is left directly with the tenant, or left with an adult who apparently lives with the tenant, the notice is deemed to be received on the day it is left.

Received in three days: It is important to know that when a copy is left in a mailbox (or mail slot) where the tenant lives, the notice is not deemed to be received until three days after the day it was left. If the notice is faxed to a number provided by the tenant, it is deemed to be received on the third day after faxing. Similarly, if notice is posted on the door or other noticeable place at the address where the tenant lives, it is deemed as received on the third day after this posting.

Received in five days: When a copy has been sent by regular mail or registered mail to the address where the tenant lives, notice is deemed to be received on the fifth day after mailing.

Many owners following these regulations are surprised to discover that, through no fault of the tenant, the notice was not actually received. Unless the notice is directly handed to the tenant, it is wise to have confirmation of receipt. At Downtown Suites, as soon as we hear from an owner that notice must be given, we send it out by registered mail.

(This is an important Evergreen Resource article, revisited from our archives.)

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Be Aware, Cautious and Prepared

You have just purchased a home in Vancouver and intend to live in it once the deal is completed. In the eyes of the BC Residential Tenancy Act, you become an “owner-occupier” and if this home is currently occupied by a renter you are entitled to end the tenancy. There are some things you should know about the procedure.

When an owner-occupier purchases, she must send a letter to the current landlord, on or before the effective date of the notice. The landlord (or the new owner-occupier) is required to pay the current tenant one month’s rent, plus give 60 days notice, served by the end of month.

In this situation, upon receiving this notice, the tenant, on the other hand, only has to give 10 days notice before ending the tenancy.

Often it becomes a negotiation point at the time of sale, deciding who should pay that one month’s rent – the new owner-occupier, or the seller.

There can be a downside to all this for landlords. If you are counting on the rent, and, say, the deal closes August 1, you will need to request in writing to the current owner to serve notice. However, if the tenant immediately after receiving this notice, gives 10 days notice and leaves after the 10th day of the month, the result to you would be a loss of revenue, in addition to the one month rent penalty.

In the light of this potential loss of revenue, landlords need to be aware, cautious, and prepared.

At Downtown Suites, we assist owners in understanding and preparing for all situations related to their property and the BC Residential Tenancy Act.

(This is an important Evergreen Resource article, revisited from our archives.)

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Many owners of investment property may be unaware of the ins and outs of the new BC Residential Tenancy Act, which has been recently updated. If your suite is currently rented to a tenant, this information should help you understand the tenant rights written into the current legislation.

The new rules for residential tenancy apply to the many suites here in Vancouver that are held as investments and currently occupied by tenants. When owners wish to sell the suite, they find that tenants are not simply expendable, to be evicted upon sale of the suite.

Here in BC, tenants have many rights, upheld by law. It may come as a surprise to owners to discover that when tenants are in a lease situation, that lease takes precendence over the sale. Unlike other countries, an owner here cannot evict a tenant for the purposes of selling. In fact, it is only if the new owner wishes to live in the suite that a tenant may be evicted. This new owner is referred to as an “owner-occupier”.

This is important legislation. At Downtown Suites, we help the owners understand the ramifications of this legislation when they decide to sell their investment property.

(This is an important Evergreen Resource article, revisited from our archives.)

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We help you rent your property. At Downtown Suites we are always looking for new inventory, as seen in this video with Nicholas Meyer.

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A fitting farewell to old documents, the downtown suites shredder is decorated for Halloween. In fact, the whole office is festooned with ghosts and goblins, Halloween goodies, jack-o-lantern and spider.

See more photos on the Downtown Suites Facebook Page – oooooo – scary!

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Nicholas Meyer introduces Frances Hui, who represents Downtown Suites at events, meetings and celebrations around Vancouver. Recorded at Coast Restaurant.

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Nic Meyer, Tanja Milosevic, Grace Chung, Ivy Wang, Lisa Taylor, Judy Zhu

We all went to Snow Garden Restaurant for Szechwan food which was excellent, then went back to Nic’s office to have cake and give Judy her card and presents. Judy is leaving us to have her second baby…due in 10 days!
Judy has been with us for almost 2 years now and in that time has become a qualified CGA. We will all miss Judy a lot!

See more photos on our Downtown Suites Facebook Page.

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At Downtown Suites we are participating in Blog Action Day Oct 15 2009, focused on Climate Change. In all our listings we include the walkscore for each suite, indicating the walkability of the area where our suites are located – and by walkability we don’t mean simply recreational walking, but walking for the stuff of life – grocery shopping, doctor’s offices, hardware stores, and so on.

We fully support cycling as main transportation, and are happy to see the Vancouver Cycle Route planner that is now available through UBC, and look forward to the “Google Maps Bike There” cycle planning rumoured to be coming on all Google Maps (or so they indicated just recently). We make sure the Vancouver cycle route planners are included in each of our listings, to encourage everyone to leave the car behind and cycle wherever possible. In this beautiful city of Vancouver we can cycle nearly year-round.

There are many new buildings in Vancouver which are LEED certified and considered “green buildings”, something we fully support and encourage, while in older buildings we encourage energy-saving approaches for maintenance and upkeep, recommending energy efficiency.

We’re excited to be working with bloggers worldwide, to help make Blog Action Day 2009 the largest ever social change event on the web.

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Google Street View launched in Vancouver today, and it’s a very exciting development. We have always wanted to be able to show the exterior of the suites and condos we manage, as well as the streets around them. Now it is possible without any muss or fuss! Our rental listings already include google maps so it will be a breeze to connect to the street view from there. Just enlarge the map, grab the little man icon and place it on the street at the location.

Here’s an example of what we are talking about. The Street View is looking at the building where the Downtown Suites offices are located in Conference Plaza, at 515 West Pender Street. And you can navigate around to see the area across the street, down the intersection, you name it!

View Larger Map

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