Rental dispute

We have rented out our condo on Burnaby mountain for another year from July. There was a dispute pending resolution.  A FIC student signed the lease with us, but she didn't want to rent just one week after.  That left us only two weeks to rent the condo for June and we had a loss of one month rent.

We had to apply for a resolution from BC Tenant Court. The student has to pay at least one month rent to cover our loss and we may seek more money as penalty.

This gives a lesson on the rent of condo.

The first, we should ask for one month rental when we sign the lease with tenants. This gives us at least some security if the tenants want to break the lease before they moved in.

The second, we have to be care when choosing tenants.  Usually, students lease the two bedroom condo to share with their friend. If the friendship was fragile, they may break the lease or won't continue the lease after one year.  Therefore, it would be better to rent to long time friends or a couple. Also, usually girls may be hard to get along and tended to cease the lease after a year.  Boys may be more accommodating and may continue to lease the condo after one year.

The third, we should add some penalty terms in the lease, even though we are using the lease template provided by the BC government.  It is always a better protection for landlord to have some penalty terms.

Invasion of Raccoon

We have successfully defended our home from the invasion of a family of raccoon this week.

The invasion might have started in the winter time. The door of the small secondary shed on the side yard was accidentally opened in the summer/fall time. The raccoon mother found this cozy and warm place in the winter time and decided to occupy it.

This Monday, my father happened to find the raccoon mother sneaked into the side yard and disappeared. He doubted that it may have entered the shed.  When I opened the door of the shed and to my surprise, the raccoon mother and four raccoon babies were sleeping there.

We were scared in the beginning, as they may be a threaten to our little daughter. My parents called 911 and policeman came by.  However, they can't do anything with the raccoons.  So, my father decided to defend our side yard ourselves.

My father caught the four baby raccoon and put them in the park couple of hundred meters away from our home, when raccoon mother left.  The raccoon mother came back to the shed and found no babies.  She decided to stay in our side yard.  We were scared more. Raccoon mother was trying to get into the shed even though we have closed the door.  She tried to dig a hole from the ground, regardless of the rock and pebble we put there.

The following several days, the raccoon mother frequently visited our side yard and stayed there almost every night.  After a week, finally, she seemed left our side yard at night.  We don't know if she had found the baby raccoons, but we are somehow relived a little bit.

The defence is not over yet, but the invasion seemed stopped.