Pubdate: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2003 The Province Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Keith Fraser, The Province Business Licences for Rental Homes Pitched RICHMOND COUNCILLOR HOPES TO FLUSH OUT GROW-OP PROBLEM A Richmond councillor wants to weed out pot grow-ops in rental homes by requiring landlords to acquire business licences and do inspections of their properties. Coun. Bill McNulty says there are hundreds of grow-ops in the municipality, many in rental homes operated by absentee landlords such as offshore owners or companies making investments. He says he got the idea after the city was embarrassed by the discovery of a city rental home being used as a grow-op and wants municipal staff to look at drawing up a bylaw that would crack down on the problem. "It's one option to look at and we do have a problem on our hands," said McNulty. "Anything we can do to mitigate grow-ops in our community is a step in the right direction." McNulty moved the motion in city council chambers last night to ask staff to probe the matter. It was passed unopposed, but Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie and at least one councillor had doubts. Brodie said while grow-ops are a "real problem" in Richmond, RCMP have a reasonably good handle on where they are and doubts whether licensing landlords is the answer. "That would create a lot of activity and I'm not sure that would give you further information or better help you regulate the situation." Coun. Derek Dang said while there's some merit in the proposal and he'd like to see more investigation into the question, it might harm tenants' rights and infringe on other laws. "You could be the best landlord in the world and certain things can run out of control. We've got to search for all and any means to minimize this type of damage." Linda Mix of the Tenants Rights Action Coalition believes the plan might simply drive bad landlords underground. "The problem is you would have a lot of landlords who are private people, who would not go and obtain a business licence because they're not claiming their properties as revenue," she said. "You've got secondary-suites landlords who are sort of underground anyway, because Richmond hasn't legalized secondary suites." The answer to the problem is to provide stronger enforcement of the Residential Tenancy Act by municipal officials, she said. Landlords in Prince George whose homes have been turned into drug houses could be fined under a strategy being considered by city staff and local RCMP. "The idea is to make landlords responsible for the people they rent to," said Rob Whitwham, administrative services director for Prince George. Said RCMP Const. Mike Caira: "A lot of these houses are owned by absentee landlords and we want to get them to be more actively involved." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake