Latest news with #tenantissues
CBC
a day ago
- CBC
Bullet holes and police raids: Former real estate agent investigated for allegedly subletting to criminals
A former Lower Mainland real estate agent is under investigation by B.C.'s real estate regulator after his name allegedly turned up last year as the 'tenant' for multiple properties linked to a major Vancouver Police Department (VPD) gang investigation. According to documents obtained by CBC News, VPD investigators contacted the B.C. Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) when Qun (Michael) Li's name surfaced during raids on Vancouver and Burnaby suites linked to a Quebec-based criminal group trying to establish a foothold in Vancouver. A search warrant claims the Burnaby resident — who also works as a driving coach — was also listed as the tenant on record in a separate RCMP investigation related to a suite where the actual occupant allegedly fired a stray bullet fired through a neighbour's wall. And at least five homeowners have turned to the courts to evict Li from their properties in the past year — including two landlords who complained their suites were rented without their knowledge to sex workers. "I feel stressed every time I think about his issues," says Richard Zhou, an apartment owner who got a B.C. Supreme Court order to remove Li's possessions from his Burnaby condo last year after taking him to the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB). "I'm helpless. The police cannot help me. The strata manager cannot help me. I think the landlord in Canada is on the weak side. We don't have too much power to kick the tenants out," said Zhou. 'A possible co-opted realtor' Li told CBC News in a brief phone call he was "not interested" in commenting on the allegations spelled out in a warrant to search his phone obtained in March. The document says the 45-year-old — who was first licensed in July 2015 — is suspected of breaching B.C.'s Real Estate Services Act by bringing the real estate industry into disrepute and failing to report his rental management property services. He has not been charged with any criminal offences or any offences under the Real Estate Services Act. The BCFSA's investigation began with an email from the VPD's organized crime section last August. "I have been made aware of a possible co-opted realtor whose name has popped up in a large drug trafficking investigation involving an organized gang originating out of Quebec but has quickly established themselves here in the Lower Mainland," the email said. The court documents say police provided two further emails "which identified six specific properties related to either VPD or Burnaby Royal Canadian Mounted Police related drug investigations." "Qun Li was listed as the tenant on record at each of the six properties at the time of the police search warrant executions for the investigations." Vancouver police publicized raids last year on the rental properties in Burnaby and Vancouver as part of an investigation into Zone 43 — a Quebec-based gang accused of drug trafficking in the Downtown Eastside. Five men were arrested after a 14-month investigation and seizures yielding $150,000 cash, two handguns and 24 kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. The BCFSA search warrant claims "a well known organized crime figure and drug trafficker was living" in one of the suites. Another was allegedly being used to stash drugs. The court documents claim the actual owners of the suites either believed Li would be living in their units or that he would act as a real estate agent to rent them out. The owner of a property in Burnaby where VPD allegedly found firearms, currency and evidence of drug trafficking claimed Li "lied to him about living with his cousin" after responding to an advertisement on a Chinese website. The search warrant says five men ended up living in the unit instead. A silver bullet fragment 'underneath his bed' The subject of a Burnaby RCMP file linked to another of Li's rentals was in provincial court in Vancouver this week, making an appearance from his new home: North Fraser Pretrial Centre. Jordy Engelo faces charges — including careless use or storage of a firearm — in connection with an RCMP investigation into a report of suspicious circumstances, made by the tenant of a neighbouring suite who noticed bullet holes in his unit's walls. CBC News has obtained a copy of a separate search warrant connected with that investigation, which claims the neighbour "woke up, went to the living room and located a hole in the wall." "Upon further investigation [the neighbour] discovered that the keyboard of his computer had some impact damage (4 keys), and the bedroom wall had been penetrated through," the search warrant says. "[He] inspected the bedroom and later located a silver bullet fragment, on the floor, underneath his bed." Police detained Engelo, who was allegedly found in the company of a 17-year-old female, who was released into the custody of her legal guardian. Engelo's bail hearing is scheduled for next week. Real estate agent Weny Wu told CBC News she rented the suite after seeing Li's business card. "He signed an agreement and he said he wanted to move in with his nephew, who's coming to Vancouver," Wu said. "Later, when something happened — the police incident happened to this unit — we finally realized that he did not actually live there by himself. He let it to other people." 'I decided to sell' Apart from the files involving police activity, five separate homeowners have taken Li to the RTB in the past year — resulting in decisions against him that landlords have enforced through B.C. Supreme Court orders. Like many of the people who rented to Li, Zhou claimed he advertised his suite on a Chinese language social media site. He said he did not give Li permission to rent the unit to someone else. The BCFSA's search warrant says Zhou told investigators Li "immediately sublet the suite to a prostitute for the first month." Another of the homeowners who went to the courts, Pedro Chie, told CBC News a sex worker also appeared to be entertaining clients out of the Whalley condo Li rented from him in Surrey, B.C. Chie said he suspected as much after being called multiple times to fix a washing machine that wasn't actually broken and finding evidence a female smoker was living in his suite — not the former real estate agent. According to an RTB decision, Li fought Chie, arguing that he "told the Landlord at the start of the agreement that they would have friends staying in the rental unit." But the RTB sided with Chie after Li admitted he was "living elsewhere on a periodic basis" — leading to the conclusion the unit was being sublet contrary to the rental agreement. "I decided to sell the apartment," Chie says. "All is messy. I have to pay money to clean up everything." Zhou says the whole experience has also cost him dearly both emotionally and financially — leaving him with $2,400 worth of fines levied by the strata after a constant string of complaints. He says he now prefers to rent to non-Canadians, because "they want to behave better." 'I am sorry' An internet search of Li's phone number turns up old advertisements for apartment rentals on Chinese websites and a posting on a John Howard Society affordable housing list from 2016 for a shared space. According to the BCFSA search warrant, Li surrendered his real estate licence within days of being contacted by the regulator in early March. "I am sorry I did not [report] my rental apartments to my manager, as the apartment is under my personal name," Li allegedly wrote in an email to the BCFSA's investigator. "I am willing to return and suspend my realtor licence to BCFSA from today. I suffered lots of stress recently and in the last few years, because some people I subleased did not pay rent or caused damages or other problem." The BCFSA confirmed in an email that its investigation into Li's activities is still ongoing. The regulator says that under the terms of B.C.'s Real Estate Services Act, former licensees can still be sanctioned for activities that took place while they were in good standing. The search warrant also includes a copy of Li's apology to his managing broker, who wrote a statement explaining that the company's real estate agents work on "an independent contractor basis."
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE My tenant from hell left my £4m Belgravia home in ruins after changing the locks, dumping my possessions in a garage and secretly subletting it to football fans on Booking.com
A trusting pensioner's £4million Belgravia home was wrecked after a tenant changed the locks and secretly sublet the property to droves of tourists on booking sites. The four-bedroom London pad has been owned by Anabel Loyd's family for over three decades, and more recently the 69-year-old's mother decided to officially hand her the home. After renting it out to family 'here and there', as well as a successful stint hiring it out as an AirBnB to various tourists, the Wiltshire woman decided to turn the property into long-term let due to 'slower periods during the winter'. A family friend worked for Foxtons estate agents so she decided to go ahead with the firm, and soon a potential tenant emerged hoping for a two-year contract, which the 69-year-old accepted with break clauses, and a rent of £1,600-a-week. They passed all of the estate agents checks, so Ms Loyd assumed all was well - but things started to go wrong almost immediately. Upon moving into the home, the tenant claimed it was 'inhabitable' because of black marks on the windows despite a deep clean being carried out by the estate agents, according to Ms Loyd. But the problems didn't end there, as the tenant changed the property's locks, dumped droves of Ms Loyd's items into a garage he shouldn't have had access to and began to rent the house out on Ms Loyd told MailOnline: 'I was completely furious. [The tenant] was subletting to huge numbers of people and they would go to the pub for a drink, so the people in the pub, who are truly wonderful, knew exactly what was going on. 'There were all these people going and kind of minibuses of people arriving, I mean, sort of 12 people at a time in a house which isn't terribly big, I mean you could have perhaps fitted eight at a pinch. 'The house, meanwhile, has clearly, progressively been disintegrating.' 'My language on the subject has been truly spectacular. I really felt like going round and smashing my own front windows so that they couldn't let it anymore. 'I was flabbergasted, and very bad tempered. It so bizarre that you almost are laughing about it too because you can't quite believe it is possible. She added: 'It is like having your house burgled, you feel everything is sort of dirty, in a strange way.' 'I wish I could say when I visit for the first time that I will be standing there in floods of tears, but I will be standing there in a tiring fury.' And although her property is currently in the hands of another, a tenant subletting a property without permission is usually considered a civil matter, rather than a criminal one. Recalling the moment she was told of hordes of unassuming Wigan supporters were descending on her home with crates of lager, she added: 'You do end up laughing because you can't believe it. 'And I have nothing against Wigan supporters at all.' On the property advertised by Ms Loyd's tenant as 'Regal Haven Four Bed Home Near Buckingham Palace' Luckily, her local publican and neighbours alerted her to the 'minibuses' of tourists packing into her property, which she said could only fit around seven or eight people 'at a pinch'. After briefly searching online, she quickly found her 'unprincipled' tenant had been advertising her home via describing it as a 'regal haven', boasting a 9.3 rating out of 10. And although to find her home on offer to strangers was 'salt to the wound', a string of images showing the damage to the property was 'the straw that broke the camel's back.' 'The sort of straw in the camels back was a US couple who had stayed at the property contacting us,' she said. 'There was dirty laundry, the doorknobs were falling off, a hole in the front door, and the three-foot high weeds in the backyard.' Ms Loyd estimates she would have lost £20,000 in costs after repairing her home, a stone's throw away from Buckingham Palace, as she would have to re-carpet, repaint and more. 'Its accumulative damage and mainly cosmetic, but living in London, anything like that costs a lot of money to get. 'I know I am lucky to live somewhere else, and to have another home, but this is a story of when s**t hits the fan.' 'It doesn't really make it any better. all the same.' And to add insult to injury, her tenant had also piled her possessions in the garage. Ms Loyd also argued they shouldn't have had access to this part of her home, as the author feared some of belongings may be damaged. 'There may be some things that would be of a certain value that would be very difficult to replace. 'Some things you can't rectify if they are really damaged as opposed to paintwork.' While she echoed concerns for books belonging to her husband's family, her main worry was for a painting of her beloved late pet. 'If they smash the picture of my late dog , I will wrangle somebody, because I just really mind about it. I mean, it's a pet long since gone.' she added. And although she says Foxtons have offered to return the deposit and commission fee, she doesn't think it will touch the sides on repairs as well as money spent on renting - which includes a £499.20 a month management fee to the estate agents. She added: 'The truth is had this been anywhere other than a small mews where everybody knows everybody business. 'It it wasn't for the local pub, no one would have known. From that point of view the tenant picked the wrong place for this sort of thing.' She added: 'I think I would only consider renting to someone who was not to me or at least people I know in future.' In light of her ordeal, Ms Loyd urged others to 'do their homework' when letting their properties, saying: 'Really press any agent before you let them let do something.' It is understood Foxtons had been in contact with the tenant 12 times between April and May, having also issued him with a Section 8 during this time. It is also understood the tenant has now signed a Deed of Surrender, a formal written agreement to end a tenancy earlier, and has until July 14 to vacate the property.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Never a good day': Gen Y property manager spills on troubled industry
A 22-year-old property manager has exposed the grim realities of an industry plagued by high turnover, with nearly a third of its workforce contemplating resignation. From workplace affairs and clueless young investors to poo-smeared walls and a rogue dildo, the Gen Y property manager said her negative experience drove her to quit the industry after two years. It comes as the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) highlighted growing dissatisfaction among property managers caught between tenants grappling with sky-high rents, and landlords managing increased holding costs and changing rental laws. Taking to Reddit after resigning from her position at a Queensland agency, the woman, identified as IcyBrick3874, described a high-pressure, underappreciated job marked by disturbing tenant behaviour. During an exit inspection, she found 'human poop on the carpet floor and on walls EVERYWHERE! Used period pads, weed and used needles'. In another routine inspection, she found a tenant's 'hot pink dildo was suction cupped to the shower wall'. The property manager also cited challenges with 'young, high-income individuals' buying their first properties as investments then demanding unrealistically high rents despite having 'minimal understanding of the rental market'. Ultimately, she concluded, there was 'never a good day'. Her experience aligned with insights shared by 751 property managers surveyed by MRI Software for the National Apartment Association, detailed in the Voice of the Property Manager 2024 report. The research found 29 per cent of property managers wanted to quit within the next five years, rising to 31 per cent among those who had been in the industry for six or more years. REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said property management remained 'a tough and emotionally taxing profession', despite more training in areas like mental health and resilience. 'The abuse directed at property managers, including verbal aggression and public vilification, previously even from political figures, is completely unacceptable and disheartening,' Ms Mercorella said. 'Queensland's property managers continue to operate in an incredibly high-pressure environment, with rental conditions remaining stubbornly tight and competition for more affordable, quality stock still intense. 'High turnover continues to strain agencies and the professionals who stay, taking a toll on service levels and wellbeing.' Palaszczuk scores insane 684 per cent return on Brisbane property IcyBrick3874 said she felt 'set up to fail' as a young team leader with little experience: 'the turn over is so high they take anyone'. She also noted a disturbing workplace culture, revealing some older male sales agents were 'inappropriately flirty with younger women', creating a 'really uncomfortable environment'. It was 'pretty widely known' that 'married agents were involved in affairs with younger staff,' describing it as a side of the industry 'rarely talked about, but definitely exists'. Ms Mercorella said the introduction of Stage 2 rental law changes in May had added significant extra strain on workers tasked with educating landlords and managing disputes. 'While we welcome efforts to improve support for property managers, including professional development and mental health resources, the core issues — chronic rental undersupply and unrelenting regulatory change, continue to weigh heavily on the profession. 'If we want to retain skilled professionals and ensure the stability of our rental market, we must better support and value those on the frontline of housing delivery.'
