Pubdate: Tue, 18 Oct 2005
Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Contact:  http://www.pqbnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361
Author: Leonard Melma

LANDLORDS ARE NOT TO BLAME

What is it about regulators and public bureaucracies that forces them to 
ignore simple principles of justice when they decide that yet another body 
of regulations must be rammed down our throats?

In this case, I am referring to the proposal that Parksville adopt a set of 
regulations punishing landlords should they fail to act promptly if the 
property they own is used by a tenant for improper purposes, in this 
particular case, the production of illegal drugs on those premises

There are two things wrong with such regulations. In the first place, they 
are self-contradictory.

Existing laws protect tenants from any improper snooping by landlords, 
thereby making it illegal and impossible for landlords to enter premises 
without warning and to examine the furnishings, incoming and outgoing mail 
and other tenants' possessions.

How then are landlords supposed to glean sufficient information on tenants 
to justify violating these regulations

Second, the law flies in the face of simple justice.

When a tenant applies to occupy an apartment or other rental housing, the 
only reasonable presumption is that the tenant wishes to live there in a 
normal manner and landlords judge them on that basis.

Therefore, if a tenant makes such an application and then violates the 
terms of the leasing agreement by producing illegal substances, it is the 
tenant that is the liar, it is the tenant who behaves improperly and the 
only party, therefore, that should be punished in any way is the tenant

This proposed regulation should be rejected out of hand without further 
consideration

Leonard Melma

Nanoose Bay
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom