A Vancouver Renter's Rant: ridiculous rents for poorly maintained units

Dec 19 2017, 6:45 pm

Vancouver is an expensive city, in fact it was ranked again as the most expensive city in North America earlier this year. 

One man has taken to Craigslist to rant about the sad state of rentals in the West End neighbourhood.

Below is the rant that was posted on Craigslist:

This is the most depressing city to look for an apartment in. I work full time and I work hard for my money, the thought of giving away more than 40 per cent of my income to live in a tiny 500 square foot apartment from the 1960s that has never been renovated and smells of moth balls, and there are perhaps even a few dead bodies from over the years.

I start work at 5 a.m. and need to live close to work as I do not drive. My options in Vancouver lead me to the West End, and while it’s convenient they are…. OLD.

I’m seeing one bedroom apartments for $1250-1400! Yaletown starts around $1,500 and that’ll get you a fairly decent but SMALL apartment about 10 years old or newer.

How the f*ck do these West End apartments think they are that close in comparison?

I walk into these places and the bath tubs are green or pink with matching toilets, the floors are original hardwood which would be fine IF THEY SHOWED SIGNS OF UP-KEEP! The kitchens make me think I’m on acid watching a re-run of the Brady Bunch, and the bedroom can hardly fit a bed let alone a dresser because the bloody closet is big enough for a week’s worth of clothes?

I’m sick of it, these sh*t holes have paid for themselves 2-3 times over by now… and they keep jacking the rent without any work being done. Then on top of it your slumlord, I mean landlord, tells you “no BBQ on the patio, no music on the weekends, no celebrations, no loud laughing, no pets, no smoking, no painting our ugly ass walls, parking is an additional $65, you can’t put up your own clean fresh curtains as you must use our stained white (now patchy yellow) curtains.”

I don’t own a pets nor do I smoke, but I would LOVE to have a dog but NOPE, and WTF no celebrations? Is this Soviet Russia? Even those guys had more liberal living freedoms in their compounds than this turd your trying to polish and tell it’s a true gem in the heart of the city.

The thing that pisses me off too is how so many people are willing to accept this as ok, but IT’S NOT. I don’t give a rats ass how much money you make….if you’re too stupid to know that you’re overpaying and don’t mind, the rest of us who are breaking our backs to get by will happily point our fingers and education you on the problem.

Is it not reasonable to pay $1100/month and have a clean bathtub and a dishwasher? These dishwashers are tiny and can fit four plates max.

A fresh paint job costs only $100 and hell why not throw up some new lights cause my great grandma keeps calling wondering when I’m going to ship her those antiques hanging from my ceiling…. And you drivers, oooooooh you poor bastards who who pay for underground parking should be livid.

The parking is built to park you car at your house, you don’t pay the city parking fees when you pull in your driveway if you had a house – it shouldn’t be acceptable when you’re already paying for rent!

And seriously, how dirty are these underground parking lots? I’ve seen enough of them that I’m content on never walking a child or elder through one for sake of death via contamination.

Vancouver, you get voted as one of the most livable cities in the world, but that’s only if you’re bringing your money in from overseas cause statistics show the average income is $35,000 to $45,000.

Now let’s minus your $1,250 rent for the year that suck out $15,000/yr… let’s add in parking at say $50, so that’s another $600 out of your wallet for the year – making total rent $15,600.

Electricity, phone and internet are about $1,320, so you’re now down $16,920 from a $40,000 income. It leaves you with $23,080, but with income taxes half of what you earn is already gone – and you haven’t even had a $12 Vera’s Burger and $8 yuppy drink yet…

I think you get my point? I don’t feel like we’re being taken care of fairly, I don’t feel like we are living in one of the “worlds most livable cities”. It may be if you’re rich enough to hit the slopes and then get on your yacht and cruise over to Granville Island for some lobster dinner and martinis with your uptight fake friends that Vancouver is famously known for. In that case you can have your hollow, self-inflated life, but can I come for the boat ride?

Give me a god damn apartment that’s of normal living size, and priced fairly based on the incomes of everyday Vancouverites.

Thank god for the FREE beaches and seawall, the majestic scenery and cultural diversity here. “The true measure of the rich, is having things that money cannot buy.”

I’m not interested in your hate mail, although I’m expecting some. I would like to discuss some solutions to this matter if anyone’s interested. Best of luck to everyone sharing my struggle searching for affordable living… keep your heads up and feel free to e-mail some property management companies and let them know how you feel about their overpriced, un-maintained apartments.

Renters via shutterstock

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff

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