The long, agonizing wait for tenants at Berkeley Apartments has ended.

On May 8, the new owners of the three-storey red-brick walk-up at 990 Bute Street in Vancouver’s West End began putting out notices telling residents that they must move out by July 31.

Since ownership of the 1926 building changed hands last year, the tenants have been told that they’ll have to give up their units soon to make way for renovations.

Some left. Others, like professional photographer Dominic Schaefer, stayed.

“We didn’t know if it was going to be two months or six months,” Schaefer told the Straight. “So ever since then, every time we come home or we were coming home, if we saw something taped to our door even if it was just a note from a friend, we thought, ”˜Oh, this is it, this is it, this is it.’ And we’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting, wondering how long we can stay at our home, and now finally it’s happened.

“So despite the fact that we’re ready for it, on some level it also it puts you on your back heel. You’re taken aback by it because we now know we have a limited amount of time to find a new place in a part of town where the rents have been skyrocketing,” he added.

Schaefer has lived at Berkeley for 17 years, and according to him, he has seen his share of friends and strangers kicked out from the West End.

The building was bought in July last year by 2008-9 Investments Ltd., and the numbered company wants to do renovations.

Under the Residential Tenancy Act, landlords can tell tenants to move out in order to make way for significant renovations. How significant these renovations are is often a subject of dispute.

“One thing that’s never been in dispute is as soon as somebody moves out, they can make any renovations they like to that suite and charge any amount of money they like,” Schaefer said. “You don’t have kick out entire buildings of people and this happened with several dozen buildings in the West End in the last two years alone. You don’t have to kick everybody out, you don’t have to kick out somebody to replace to kitchen counters and cabinets. People do that in their homes all the time. My girlfriend lives in a building where they just replaced all the piping. You don’t have to kick people out for that either. But they’re using this loophole in the legislation to evict everyone, get rid of long-time tenants, and jack the prices of every apartment in one fell swoop. And we feel it’s wrong to treat people like that.”

Of the 36 units at Berkeley, 22 remain occupied by tenants. Schaefer said the remaining tenants are exploring all options.

Schaefer said he can’t speak for everyone in the West End who has been subject to this practice that is commonly referred to as “renoviction”.

But with the provincial election tomorrow (May 12), Schaefer said, “Certainly the fact that the government, the provincial government that’s in power now, has allowed this sort of legislation to remain, and while they have also said that the RTO [Residential Tenancy Office] process and the legislation is absolutely fine and doesn’t need changing—if you disagree with that, then certainly you can make your opinion known through your vote.”