Residents of the El Cid building in Vancouver’s West End say they’ve been hit with repeated assessments while leasehold ownership leaves them with limited protections.
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Residents of the “El Cid” building in Vancouver’s West End say they are being charged repeated levies and assessments to address building issues, despite limited tenant protections under their leasehold arrangement.
As leaseholders, they say they are excluded from protections under the Residential Tenancy Act. Leasehold property owner Ken Lychak said, “They want to be nameless, they want to be faceless and hide behind a corporate name and a barking lawyer. That is what has been allowed to happen, and it is really unconscionable.”
A real estate agent, Greyden Douglas, said private leasehold properties operate differently from strata buildings, noting, “There is no votes, you don’t have a strata council, and there is no AGM,” adding that residents are subject to decisions of the owner. “So you are subject to the decisions of the owner. If there is going to be any capital assessments, they are just assigned to you.”
Another leasehold property owner, Sonja Bakker, said she has lived in the building for 33 years and relies on a single pension, with costs that she says are rising rapidly. She said, “We just got another assessment for $350,000 for the pool, which we are not even swimming in,” and added, “The expenses are so exorbitant, and at one point we had 15, 16 people selling.”
Bakker and other residents said they want a greater say in how funds are spent and more transparency from the building’s landlord. They called on the B.C. government to change the law to close what they describe as a loophole affecting private leaseholds. “What do we want? Legislation, just like strata buildings,” Bakker said. “We don’t want to run your show. All we want to know is, how was that $5 million spent?”
Bakker said she believes residents are not provided the information they need, adding, “We know nothing, and we are not dumb people. We want to know.”
West End MLA Spencer Chandra-Herbert previously authored a report calling for action on private leaseholds, saying, “We need legal change. The government needs to step in and say this is the law, you have to be transparent.”
The building owner identified in the report is Sheridan Investments Ltd. Residents said they are watching for possible changes, as the costs they say are being assigned to them continue to rise.
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