I've been renting apartments in Vancouver for the past 30 years and I've never encountered SLUMLORDS and FRAUDSTERS like Plan A Real Estate. The apartment we saw advertised was expensive at $1,900/month for a 1-BR, but was advertised as "renovated" and "furnished" and in the neighborhood we had lived for decades before a year in Montreal. Viewed the suite over Skype. It wasn't the same suite as in the ad. The agent, Maulen Kalau, showed us a messy, dirty suite with a badly damaged bathtub, but promised "it would all be fixed and cleaned before we arrived". The only renovations were the vinyl flooring, everything else appeared to be from the 1950's or older. We wanted furnished so we wouldnt have to ship everything, and based on his promises, we applied and were surprised to be accepted as out-of-towners without much of a credit or reference check. First red light.
Arrived at the suite to discover it was FILTHY, covered in MOUSE POO, the bed was full of poo, poo was in all the kitchen cupboards, all over the floors and even stuck to the walls. Food and oil spills had been hidden instead of cleaned up. The windows wouldn't close, they flew open with the wind. The view from our living room picture window was of the dumpster in the back alley covered in a MOUNTAIN OF GARBAGE that attracted animals, and people were photographing it as they walked by. The upstairs neighbour told us she'd be tweeting photos of the garbage mountain to the Mayor for the past 3 months asking for help. The bathtub had not been repaired and Maulen suddenly had "no recollection" of offering to repair or replace it. We would not have even applied for this suite if he had not made us that promise. The walls were all punched in, the door had been broken into and barely repaired. We were not given any condition report to sign upon arrival, as the place was clearly inhabitable.
The "furnished" suite only included a double bed, a dining table and chairs, some plastic to-go cutlery, and and old armchair so damaged it looked like it had been pulled out of the dumpster. The crowning glory was a dirty Corona beer bottle growing with GREEN FUZZY MOULD inside it as the centerpiece on the table. NOT WHAT WE EXPECTED FOR $1,900/MONTH!! But when we complained to Maulen, he claimed we were lying about the condition of the suite even when shown over 75 photographs we had taken just that morning after we got off the plane from MTL. He offered us a used mattress protector so we could sleep in the bed full of mouse shit.
He finally agreed to send in 1 cleaning lady who stayed less than an hour, but he would not do any pest control, no painting, and no repairs. He sent up a guy with some plastic zap straps to close the windows. Unsatisfied, we still wanted the repairs done. We're two girls living on a back alley with windows that don't close, and I could open them with my hands by standing on the dumpster.
Still refusing to do any repairs, Maulen offered us to look at 2 other empty suites in the building - but they were ALL FILTHY AND DAMAGED. We chose the least gross of the 3 suites, the only one that didn't appear to have any mouse poo, not too much damage, and was only covered in a thick layer of dust over everything, even the shower head; it appeared to have been empty for several months at least. Still, the toilet seat was broken, the intercom didn't work at all, there's graffiti in the hallways, only one washing machine for the whole building, and no recycling services whatsoever, which only made the garbage situation even worse. Everything was filthy everywhere you looked. WHAT A DUMP! And for $1,900/month.
Now, we had lived 2 blocks away in a beautiful heritage house with excellent management for the past 3 years paying $785/month LESS than we were paying Plan A. So we took a look around and found that we could rent a whole brand new 2-bedroom 2-storey laneway house with a dishwasher and in-suite laundry for only $50/month more than our dump at Plan A. After many complaints and Maulen lying to us multiple times, we ultimately decided to break the lease with Plan A and chose a gorgeous apartment with a huge balcony, breathtaking views of the city and harbour, a fitness room, and outdoor swimming pool still for $300/month less than we were paying Plan A just 6 blocks away. Those managers cleaned and painted the whole suite with only 48 hours turnaround between tenants.
But the nightmare wasn't over yet!!! In our exit inspection, Plan A attempted to take $200 in cleaning fee deductions off of our security deposit. Cleaning fees!?!? We spent the entire month, the only month we stayed there, cleaning that apartment ourselves. We left it in much better condition than we got it. But still they want more money from us, and now they're complaining that we've been difficult tenants.
Tell it to the judge, Plan A. See you in court! Check out these photos for yourself: https://www.facebook.com/gloriousamok/posts/10154769037308045 read more