I’ve noticed that people trying to rent out their basements are charging the most. Often they’re also the ones with young families living above, and they expect tenants to not only pay $1900 + for their tiny basement, but tolerate the noise of toddlers or teenagers crashing around at the same time. No thank you! I’ll take a run down older building at a much more reasonable price any time! The other problem with far too many of these people renting out their basement (or their condo or their laneway house), is that they’re totally ignorant about their responsibilities and their tenant’s rights under the Residential Tenancy Act. It’s a headache I’m not willing to live with.

do not want you there, they just want the money. They generally don't care about you as a person.

I don't think that's true. When I was little we rented out our basement to a number of people one of whom I think became a supreme Court Justice or something like that. I think that one may have grown a pot plant in the backyard but I'm not sure if it was her or another who was a lawyer.

Was it about the money sure it was about the money and as soon as our mortgage was paid off one of my parents said great we're not renting the basement anymore. This was the stupidest decision that could have been made economically but well you know people aren't rational animals.

Currently we don't have much real estate we rent just an apartment now we bought that for a family member who couldn't live with us anymore but passed away. I think the last time I did the math with the NDP is no rent increase policy we were making the handsome profit of about $200 a year so hopefully there are no assessments otherwise the tenant won't even pay them.

I mean if we sell it we make I think based on purchase price 100K or something but it's not about the money in that sense. I mean it's a studio apartment two blocks from Stanley park and we rent it for about 1200 a month.

This idea that people who rent property or somehow like not human is how the world works there are scarce objects and if you have one that someone needs you rented to them it's much better to focus on finding a scarce object for yourself to get ahead then to complain about the people who've already done that.

I mean the reason we're in the position we're in is because we've scrimped and saved for three generations now we don't go on big vacations we don't buy designer purses or anything like that I mean we're fairly boring people.

The tragedy is if we were the sophisticated capitalist or whatever term we want to use for the people that I think people dislike renting out their basements like I've watched the market for years and years and years and it's actually because the family doesn't see it as ethical really to use real estate to make money I mean we've missed out on tons of money so don't tell me the people who own homes or rent them are only in it for the money if we were we'd be much wealthier

Please share where you’re going…this city has changed so much and not for the better

Me too !!
What part of butt fuck nowhere you going ?
Is the air fresher, are the people nice and can you hear the birds there :)

From utt-fck nowhere!

Things have significantly changed since “you were little”. At least that’s assuming that you’re over 20 years of age? Reality is that now the only way the majority of people can afford to buy a detached house is if they’re renting out a part of it. Their mortgage is entirely dependent on that income. So obviously they want to get the absolute most that they can of that rental suite, so they will charge as much as possible. I won’t necessarily agree with the comment that they don’t care, because I have no way of knowing how they feel about whoever rents their space. But clearly the most important thing for virtually all of them is getting the most money that they can for the least amount of effort. I once rented out a suite in my own home back in the early 80’s, and at the time I had no idea about what my obligations were or what my tenants’ rights were. Nowadays it’s a whole new scene, and the expectation is that if you want to attract a really great tenant, don’t try to gouge them, respect them as a party to a business arrangement (that’s what this is!), and respect their rights religiously. Otherwise, don’t complain when you get huge turnover rates and lousy, disrespectful tenants.

has told me on occasion that if I moved, they could rent their suite out for more money. How rude. I'm a quiet senior woman who always pays rent on time. I'm just a source of income for them, nothing else.

Well all you're describing is what a rational economic actor does you know your talk of it being just a business arrangement, that term gouging I mean if we're talking for the sake of argument a house that's a million with 200k down which is itself a problem but let's say they did it they have a mortgage payment of about $3,500 bucks a month at 2% for 25 years. Using the 33% rule that we all know doesn't work in Vancouver that would mean they'd have a monthly income of what like let's say 11,000. That's a combined income of about 125k a year let's say. Ignoring the down payment problem entirely, I can't see renting say a two bedroom basement for 17 00 or even 2,000 if you could get it as gouging. The fundamental social problem is that we have too many people and not enough houses for them. Anyone who does this just go drive down to Brentwood and look at the towers they're putting up. We're getting a sky train expansion to Langley so that the sprawl of Surrey can be pushed further out to the valley. I hear the point you're making and I hear the point that people complaining about this are making but I don't have any idea how landlords using a basement suite to fund their single consumer mortgage is a big deal. I mean if you had a well that didn't have enough water and the guy that owned it had to charge a lot for that water because let's say for the sake of argument the people who filled the well were just raising prices and also you had no control over the number of people who are coming to drink out of that well because well the water works is provincial and immigration is federal... It's a really bad scene and most people don't understand how bad it is because the sad fact of our economy is if you're smart enough to realize how bad it is you're probably smart enough to make do. But making do and teaching your kids to do that and them teaching their kids to do that eventually that just stops working and I think we're in the midst of that actually ceasing to work in North America and a large way.

I'm sure most people would love to move to the middle of nowhere, but unfortunately big cities are where most jobs are. We can't all work from home or collect welfare.