Residents given reprieve from rental cat-nundrum
By STEFANIA SECCIA, 24 HOURS
Sharon Isaak - Co-founder Renters At Risk
A west-end group of residents and their cats can breath a sigh of relief after B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch blocked the evictions that would have forced them – and their furry friends – out.
The group of cat-owners had verbal permission to keep pets, but last December Hollyburn Properties tried to evict them because of it, said Spencer Herbert, NDP MLA, yesterday.
“This should’ve never happened,” said Herbert outside the west-end apartment building Emerald Terrace.
Mary Milligan, a resident for three years and owner of one cat, said, “You can’t believe the relief I feel.”
Sharon Isaak from the Renters at Risk Campaign (RRC) said Hollyburn was aware of these pets a year ago when it bought the building, but used the excuse now to get long-term residents out in an effort to increase the rent.
“[Hollyburn needs] to be accountable for this,” she said. “Enough is enough.”
But Allan Wesley, Hollyburn general manager, said RRC is putting a spin on it.
“We will continue to consider our residents’ well-being in all policies, including our policy requiring that all residents must have written authorization to have a pet in their unit,” he wrote in a statement.
Source:24 Hours Vancouver
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Renters At Risk 
Hollyburn Properties is hypocritical. In another apartment complex they own, the building manager told tenants they could have cats if they wanted. The only reason Hollyburn is using this eviction ploy is to make buckets of money. Their mandate appears to be to turn all their apartment buildings into virtual hotels where high rents discourage people from staying long. They enjoy the turnover because it means they can charge as much as they want every time someone moves out. In a Holllyburn-owned building a friend of mine lives in, people are being crammed in. Whole families are being allowed to live in postage-stamp sized bachelor suites that used to house single people, mainly students. The apartments are so jammed with people, they often use the lobby as an alternate room to play cards, meet, or just read a book in peace. Hollyburn is one of the worst offenders in the rental market. They don’t care about the state of their buildings or who lives in them as long as they’re earning lots of money. It’s about greed, people. That is all.