Subdivided Rooms in Metro Vancouver

A one-bedroom unit here was subdivided into three bedrooms

I thought subdivided flats were only a Hong Kong phenomenon, but it turns out it's happening in Metro Vancouver too.

In a rental building in New Westminster, someone -- it's not clear if it's the landlord or the tenant -- was trying to convert a one-bedroom into three subdivided rooms with makeshift walls so that each had a bed and big-screen TV, though the three tenants would share the kitchen and bathrooms. Rent would be over C$1,200 each.

A screen-capped listing of the subdivided unit

A tenant living in the building heard the construction noise and armed with video evidence of the subdivided rooms, complained to New Westminster City Hall.

"I got scared, I got nervous," he said. "The first thing I thought of was my security in the building."

Soon after the same tenant heard noise again, and this time the temporary walls were taken down.

The building is run by Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, or CAPREIT. When contacted by the media, CAPREIT didn't respond to a request for an interview, only saying that units must comply with all safety standards, including those in the National Building Code of Canada and the BC Fire Code.

However, a tenant advocacy group says municipal governments need to have more oversight over rental housing.

Meanwhile, the tenant who first complained about the subdivided apartment says he's heard from other residents in the area who tell him similar things are happening to their buildings.

"It needs to be an election issue across the country," he said.

Possibly, but the main thing is some kind of oversight and regulation by municipal and possibly provincial authorities to stop this from happening, particularly in rental buildings.