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.)
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.
We would appreciate any referrals you may have in regards to your clients who have purchased for investment and who may be looking for a property manager and potential tenants. It could also be a value-added service from you, to be able to recommend the property management services of a reputable company such as Downtown Suites Ltd.
As you may already know, Downtown Suites Ltd. is a firm of proven, professional, caring and conscientious people; the kind of people you can depend on. I have personally been in the industry since 1978 and I started Downtown Suites back in 1994. We own our own offices, clear title, at Conference Plaza and have five fully qualified licensed property managers on staff and two in house accountants to ensure that everything is well organized. In addition, all funds are held in trust for the client and our books are audited annually by the Real Estate Council. Our aims in managing our client’s property are high, and our fees are very fair and reasonable. (8% for ongoing 24/7 management – no up charging and 1/2 a months rent to secure tenants) We continually strive to offer the finest condominium property management service in downtown Vancouver. We pride ourselves on service, and we will do whatever necessary to make you look good. Please review our web site for further information on our company: www.downtownsuites.com
Your clients are always your clients, your name is on the file and is always referred back to the client should they advise they wish to make any real estate transaction. In addition we are happy to send a fine dining certificate to Top Table Restaurants (Cin Cin, Blue Water Café etc) to you to show our appreciation.
Thank you once again for considering us, we appreciate your business.
Last year we were managing a large 2 bedroom suite in Yaletown, and over the years we had become very close with the owners. We were in constant communication with them, remitting their rent to them on a monthly basis, and we’d also done some general contracting for them.
So when it came time for them to take profit and sell, they immediately came to us as their representatives in Vancouver to list the property. But we knew that this suite had been originally referred to us by a prominent west side realtor, who had, over the years, slipped from their memory.
We reminded the owners who their realtor representative was, and put them back in touch with one another. The realtor managed to make a million dollar sale, and was very happy for it.
It was “the sale we didn’t make”, but we did do the right thing and referred it back to where it came from. We always value our ongoing relationships with our referring realtors over any personal gain.
2 bedrooms (split – ideal for room-mates) with sweeping views of Vancouver city, mountains and water! This suite features stainless steel appliances, in-suite laundry, huge solarium/den off kitchen which can be a separate eating area or office.
Property Manager Tanja Milosevic and Leasing Agent Lisa Taylor are seen here at their desks in the busy Downtown Suites office.
