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Let us first say how thankful we are for this amazing community that we are proud and honored to be a part of, without your love and support this wouldn’t be the great family that it is today.
Last week our world got turned upside down and our family was handed an Eviction Notice due to Renovations in our building. This is often referred to as a “renoviction”. It has become an increasingly problematic in our area and Vancouver as a whole. Landlords cannot increase the rent enough through yearly increases, so they use renovations as a loophole to increase the rent at an astronomical rates. Sometimes as high as a 65% increase in rent.
We were one of 6 units to get this notice and we have less than 4 months to find a new home. What an awful notice to get handed right before Christmas. It has been a struggle to enjoy the holidays with this news hanging over our head. With the shear uncertainty on where we will be living and if we will have a roof over our heads.
We have checked with our B.C Tenancy Branch and have even confirmed our building owners permits with City Bylaw, it’s true; Apartment Owners are allowed to kick us to the curb to do renovations in our building. The scariest part is once the renovations are done - our landlord is ALLOWED to offer us a new lease agreement for our suite. Which means the wonderful ‘cats allowed/pet policy’ will change and we will no longer be allowed to have our family with us. AND the landlord is allowed to increase your rent to whatever he feels ‘market value’ is!! This is 100000% unacceptable to us! We are being forced into a rental market that doesn’t like pets. We will never ever leave our fur family behind! That will never be an option for us, wherever we go, They go! The vacancy rate for rentals in Vancouver and surrounding areas sits as low as 0.5%. The ones that allow pets is a faction of that!
We have given back to our community on numerous occasions because of the wonderful donations from you guys. We’ve helped feed so many homeless pets and spread the word on Adopt don’t shop and how amazing special needs pets can be!
We’ve never asked for help to benefit our personal lives. We’ve always made sure that our hearts were in the right place for the right reasons. We’re embarrassed that we weren’t prepared and didn’t see this coming. But we need help. And we’d never ask if we didn’t feel like it put our fur babies well-being at risk.
We’ve started this gofundme to help with relocation costs such as moving expenses, securing a new place to live, so that we can continue to live together as a family and find a place that lets us bring all our cats.
Our goal, with your help, is to land a perminant residence in a home so that we never have to fear of being evicted again. With that we can focus on spreading awareness and continue to support local animal shelters in our area.
Every dollar helps, every Christmas wish makes a huge difference to us xox nothing is too small a donation. We wish every single one of you a very Merry Christmas! Thank you
BenBen and Family
Last week our world got turned upside down and our family was handed an Eviction Notice due to Renovations in our building. This is often referred to as a “renoviction”. It has become an increasingly problematic in our area and Vancouver as a whole. Landlords cannot increase the rent enough through yearly increases, so they use renovations as a loophole to increase the rent at an astronomical rates. Sometimes as high as a 65% increase in rent.
We were one of 6 units to get this notice and we have less than 4 months to find a new home. What an awful notice to get handed right before Christmas. It has been a struggle to enjoy the holidays with this news hanging over our head. With the shear uncertainty on where we will be living and if we will have a roof over our heads.
We have checked with our B.C Tenancy Branch and have even confirmed our building owners permits with City Bylaw, it’s true; Apartment Owners are allowed to kick us to the curb to do renovations in our building. The scariest part is once the renovations are done - our landlord is ALLOWED to offer us a new lease agreement for our suite. Which means the wonderful ‘cats allowed/pet policy’ will change and we will no longer be allowed to have our family with us. AND the landlord is allowed to increase your rent to whatever he feels ‘market value’ is!! This is 100000% unacceptable to us! We are being forced into a rental market that doesn’t like pets. We will never ever leave our fur family behind! That will never be an option for us, wherever we go, They go! The vacancy rate for rentals in Vancouver and surrounding areas sits as low as 0.5%. The ones that allow pets is a faction of that!
We have given back to our community on numerous occasions because of the wonderful donations from you guys. We’ve helped feed so many homeless pets and spread the word on Adopt don’t shop and how amazing special needs pets can be!
We’ve never asked for help to benefit our personal lives. We’ve always made sure that our hearts were in the right place for the right reasons. We’re embarrassed that we weren’t prepared and didn’t see this coming. But we need help. And we’d never ask if we didn’t feel like it put our fur babies well-being at risk.
We’ve started this gofundme to help with relocation costs such as moving expenses, securing a new place to live, so that we can continue to live together as a family and find a place that lets us bring all our cats.
Our goal, with your help, is to land a perminant residence in a home so that we never have to fear of being evicted again. With that we can focus on spreading awareness and continue to support local animal shelters in our area.
Every dollar helps, every Christmas wish makes a huge difference to us xox nothing is too small a donation. We wish every single one of you a very Merry Christmas! Thank you
BenBen and Family
Organizer
Sandra Windover
Organizer
New Westminster, BC
