Peter Lee realizes how lucky his family is to be alive.
When Lee joined the ranks of thousands of other Metro Vancouver immigrants trying to get ahead by renting the basement suites of their hard-earned homes, his main concern was whether or not his tenants would pay their rent on time.
He never imagined they would turn the lower floor of his home into a clandestine drug lab, and ultimately blow the place to bits.
Lee chose to rent the 800 square-foot basement suite of his Vancouver Special to a young man in his 20s. The young man seemed like he would make a good tenant - he was polite, well-dressed, and he had cash up-front for the $1,020 monthly rent and damage deposit.
A sublet involving the young man’s “cousins” did not seem out of the ordinary.
Soon the rookie landlord began to have doubts about his decision to rent. There was a constant flow of visitors to his basement suite, and the persistent thump-thump of loud music.
Within four months, his tenant had morphed from a respectable young man who claimed to be a fashion designer, into a rough-edged character with a shaved head and newly adorned tattoos.
Lee, a 52-year-old Vancouver waiter, told his wife Jeannie that they should consider finding new tenants.
“But my wife didn’t want to go through the hassle because she thought it was hard to find good tenants,” recalls Lee.
Daniel, the Lee’s 19-year-old son, chalked up the attitude downstairs to the typical behaviour of newly-independent twentysomethings.
Another four months passed.
And then one night, while Lee was working in his garage, he heard his tenant repeatedly yell, “Fire! Fire!”
When Lee rushed to investigate, the tenant and his friends insisted everything was fine and shut the door to the basement suite.
“Five seconds later, there was an explosion,” recalls Lee. “A fireball flew at me and burned the hair off the side of my head and my eyebrows. It was really scary. I was in shock.”
Wife Jeannie was in the laundry room adjacent to the basement suite when the explosion ripped through the drywall and blasted the laundry sink off its fittings.
The quick-thinking 48-year-old nurses aid used the garden hose to douse two individuals who stumbled out of the basement on fire. A third tenant fled the chaotic scene. Within 10 minutes of the explosion, paramedics, police, and fire fighters arrived at the scene in the 2900-block of East Vancouver’s Grant Street.
The police informed Lee that his tenants were in fact using a propane tank and hot plates to mix Crystal Meth in the basement bathroom.
Lee had never even heard of Crystal Meth, a highly-addictive stimulant and a cheap drug to make with its toxic ingredients readily available.
With an investment of $200 to $300 for supplies and a recipe from the Internet, Lee was horrified to learn, a batch of Meth can be manufactured (cooked) and turned overnight into $2,000 on the streets of Metro Vancouver.
Fortunately, none of the Lee’s three children were injured, but their family home of 21 years was suddenly uninhabitable.
The Crystal-Meth explosion caused $200,000 in damage.
The blast tore the walls apart and caused the sides of the house to bulge more than 15 centimetres. The basement doors were blown off and the heat of the explosion cracked all the lower floor windows.
All tolled, two fireplaces, the kitchen appliances, the heating and plumbing systems, a hot water tank, the electrical system, and the floors had to be replaced, and the whole house had to be repainted.
The entire repair took over nine months, during which time vandals forced their way into the boarded, vacant home and caused a further $100,000 in damage.
Remarkably, Lee decided not to press criminal charges against his tenants out of fear of retaliation. In fact, the names in this report have been changed at Lee’s request to protect his family’s identity.
The young man at the centre of the Meth lab disaster, the Asian Pacific Post has learned, is currently before the courts on unrelated weapons charges.
• • •
Al Kemp, Chief Executive Officer of the Rental Owners and Managers Association of British Columbia, says 98 per cent of tenants are simply looking for good homes.
It’s that two per cent too often involved in the drug trade that destroys innocent peoples’ homes and lives.
“Crystal Meth is 10 times worse than marijuana because anyone can set up a factory on a kitchen table in 10 minutes and take it down in two seconds,” Kemp explains, adding because laws in B.C. demand a landlord must give 24 hours written notice prior to entering a tenant’s suite, it is easy for miscreant Meth makers to hide their explosive cook shops.
There are also serious financial consequences for a landlord if a grow-op or Crystal Meth lab is discovered on his property. Depending on a city’s bylaws, a property owner can be held responsible for the home remediation and related civic costs, including the steep fees incurred by the city for its emergency response.
Kemp says some city bylaws have become unreasonable, and place too much of the crime-busting burden on landlords, with fees that may include $1,100 per hour for a fire truck and $8,500 for health and safety inspections in the aftermath of a residential drug bust.
Many city’s, including Vancouver, will cut services to a property pending an inspection and its return to code.
Kemp, whose organization represents more than 2,000 landlords and manages 50,000 residential rental units in B.C., was in Port Coquitlam earlier this month giving a three-hour seminar on how to pick a tenant and tips for potential landlords.
His most basic tip: A good landlord doesn’t simply collect a cheque.
• • •
While Peter Lee’s insurance covered $300,000 of the total cost of his nine-month nightmare, the career waiter now pays a substantially higher premium for his home insurance.
All in, Lee estimates he’s out of pocket $25,000 for his Meth-induced misadventure, which includes additional food and lodging for his family of five, boarding and securing his property after the explosion, and health and safety inspections (at $1,000) by the City of Vancouver.
For now, Lee says he won’t be renting out his renovated basement suite any time soon. His dreams of a comfortable transition to adulthood for his children, and a debt free retirement for he and his wife have been dashed by a combination of naivety and plain bad luck.
“I just don’t want the trouble,” he says. “It’s just not worth it.”
Do your homework:
For an annual fee, the Rental Owners and Managers Association of B.C. offers legal and operating advice, educational seminars, credit checks on potential tenants, and expanded coverage of residential rental insurance for residential landlords with six or less units.
CEO Al Kemp says the majority of his clients own one to three properties, and due to their full-time jobs and limited landlord experience, they want professional help.
Picking a good tenant doesn’t have to be a nightmare, says Kemp.
It begins an initial phone conversation with the potential tenant to gather information about their rental status and why they are moving.
“It is not about selling your suite,” he explains.
After weeding out the less desirable tenants, the second step is the in-person interview while conducting a tour of the suite.
A written rental application should also be filled out and signed.
Kemp warns newbie landlords that bad tenants usually know how to answer probing questions, and that they often use their friends as phony references.
Do your homework, says Kemp. To verify information, it’s important to do a background check including a credit report, calling previous landlords, and checking with the person’s current employer.
He also recommends a membership with one of the two legally registered landlord associations in B.C. – ROMS B.C. (www.suites-bc.com) or the British Columbia Apartment Owners and Managers Association (www.bcaomarentals.com).
By Amy Chow
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