A friend of mine from the doggy park lives with his mommy in the west side of Vancouver in a very nice neighborhood. Unfortunately, the house next to theirs have been neglected for years with many broken windows, dilapidated roof and sidings and overgrown yard. In his block alone there are four similar conditioned houses. This is in an area where houses start at 5 million dollars. Why would people do that – spent that kind of money on a house and not look after it. Most of these owners are from China or Russia and they were laundering their money. That in itself is not against any law at the moment. Canada and especially Vancouver do not have the guts to introduce the law and so far showed feeble attempts and a lack of desire to control this problem. Well, what about my friend and all the other people that have to live next to them? According to statistics, there are over 25,500 empty homes in the city of Vancouver alone. Empty is one thing but un-kept is not so cool.
In Mexico, where I spent part of my year and indeed, in many Central and South American countries they have a way of dealing with this problem. If a house is not occupied and do not look like it’s been kept up for say, six months, someone can actually move into the house. If they then start to improve the house and keeps it up they can eventually legally take-over the house. With the argument that the house was abandoned and with proof of improvement and up-keep, the person can apply to have the title of the house put in his name. It is called Squatter’s Right. How about introducing this to Vancouver?
What a great idea! Hey, with the majority of people thinking that housing is the number one issue in the City, maybe I should run for city council next Spring. I’ll show them how to solve the housing problems ….then I will take care of the traffic …..and then bike lanes …..and ….and
Beau Talks 