THE CHALLENGES OF OWNING A PRIVATE LEASEHOOD
Tenants Have Few Rights, and Some Landlords Take Full Advantage

by Jacqui Birchall
(click images to enlarge)

Residents of four of the ten privately owned leasehold apartments in the West End recently contacted The West End Journal about the difficulties they are facing.

**the El Cid**. *(Jacqui Birchall Photos)*

A privately owned leasehold in BC is a real estate arrangement in which one buys a property in a building owned by a private company or individual, unlike a public leasehold which is owned by a city, university, First Nation, or the Crown. The private company or individual maintains ownership of the underlying land, and the purchaser has a long-term contract of up to 99 years. Most of these leases started in the early 1970s. This arrangement has been described as a long-term rental, yet residents of privately owned leaseholds have no legal protections, unlike month-to-month renters, residents of mobile home parks, or owners of strata units. The apartment's value can drop as the lease nears its end. Those who purchase privately owned leaseholds have no right to a lease extension. Mortgages can be hard to arrange, especially as the lease term approaches its end.

This type of leasehold was created in the early 1970s when building owners tried to evade rent controls. At that time, many rental buildings converted their buildings to strata or co-ops. Such changes required government-guided upgrades. Owners who did not want to spend money on upgrading to strata or co-op standards investigated and found the leasehold style common in the UK. These leaseholds evaded government oversight and introduced long, complicated leases that gave purchasers little indication of future costs.

Purchasing a private leasehold property is cheaper than purchasing a strata or co-op property because leaseholders own it for a specific number of years. The four West End leasehold properties mentioned in this article have stunning views from the higher floors. Leaseholders mentioned being seduced by the wonderful views.

An informative article on the website of local realtors Garbutt and Dumas (see Related Links below for links to this and other articles and documents cited here) explains the differences among strata, co-op, and leasehold ownership, and describes what living in a leasehold property is like: “living on borrowed time.”

Private leasehold building owners benefit because residents on declining leases pay the building’s capital costs, protecting owners financially. Lessees agree they should pay for regular building maintenance, but wonder why they must cover capital costs from which they will gain no benefit when their lease expires.

THE BC GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENT

The BC Government has responded to some extent, and says it will investigate further.

MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert also wrote a lengthy response to the government regarding the problems faced by leaseholders in private leaseholds. Chandra Herbert interviewed many leaseholders and his findings and final report are available in the links below.

Spencer reported that "The majority of respondents to this engagement identified as seniors and of low or fixed income. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to increases in housing costs and at risk of housing instability. Several respondents indicated that the issues they have experienced with their leasehold have led to financial hardship. In some cases, respondents said other residents have been forced to sell because levies became unaffordable. Others said they feel threatened with eviction if they can't meet onerous payment obligations on time or for minor breaches of the landlord’s rules.

The BC Government encourages real estate agents to understand private leaseholds so they can better help their clients.

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?

According to several owners of such buildings, leaseholders have no right to challenge the repair costs quoted by the building owner or to receive a report on quotes and a final repair breakdown to prove the huge amounts charged to each lessee.

The financial costs of challenging private leasehold owners in court are overwhelming and beyond the means of many senior, fixed-income owners.

Reports suggest that the building owners can be benevolent dictators if the residents are lucky (these owners have discussions with the lessees and provide full descriptions of expenditures), but more often, owners allow no discussion of decisions about expensive repairs and new building rules, and provide no clear cost breakdown for each major repair.

Residents of the West End’s El Cid and the Surfcrest say the buildings are owned by Sheridan Investments, an Alberta company headed by Julie Trache.

Ms. Trache is also listed as the president of Westsea Construction, another private company that owns leasehold buildings in Surrey, the West End, and Victoria. The dissatisfaction in these buildings is equally extraordinary. Residents of Westsea Towers at 1330 Harwood report a controlling manager who presents difficulties when leaseholders try to complete city-approved renovations.

Letters are sent to residents in the El Cid and the Surfcrest; demands are made for post-dated cheques to cover the repairs; and should a resident communicate with Ms. Trache, she uses a lawyer to respond and the costs for the lawyer’s responses are added to the operating costs of the residents.

TAKING LEGAL ACTION

Westsea and Sheridan are represented by Mark C. Stacey of the law firm Singleton Reynolds. Orchard House leaseholders in Victoria are Westsea leaseholders and some Orchard House leaseholders have challenged Westsea's multimillion-dollar building remediation project. One self-represented litigant of Orchard House challenged Westsea in court, and Mark C. Stacey posted that “this decision serves as a reminder that litigants should not take up valuable court time in pursuit of specious legal arguments.”

On August 1, the Victoria Times Colonist published an article fully describing the Orchard House litigant’s struggle. The Supreme Court still has to rule on Westsea’s request for court costs against the litigant and whether Westsea has the right to charge the leaseholders for Westsea’s legal costs. This decision is expected in October.

Mark C. Stacey does not reveal in his post that the Orchard House leaseholders paid his fees. He charges all his fees for the various properties back to leaseholders under “operating expenses.”

An Orchard House litigant has filed a claim against Stacey, who will in the future (once the October decision comes down) request a review of expenses charged under the LPA (Legal Professions Act).

Leaseholders of the EL Cid were charged a total of $1.2 million dollars in legal fees in the years 2024 and 2025

RULES AND MORE RULES

Sheridan Investments announced one day that the El Cid would now be pet-free. They lost that battle as recent buyers had purchased into a pet-friendly building. Sheridan backtracked and announced that no more pets could be taken in, and that deceased pets could not be replaced.

Recently, carless parking space owners in the El Cid who were renting their parking space to other residents were told that was no longer possible. Those who were renting a space from a fellow tenant were threatened with towing. Management checked all license plate numbers to enforce the no-renting-out-the-space-to-another-tenant rule.

Sheridan sent letters to the leaseholders who rented their neighbours’ parking spaces that included, “Lastly, we reiterate that if you fail to address this issue or if it comes to our attention that you are still parking your vehicle in parking stalls that are not assigned to your suite, Sheridan may consider you to be in breach of the Lease and we may then take steps available to us under the Lease which may include commencing legal proceedings against you for injunctive and/or other relief, including engaging a contractor to tow the vehicle from the El Cid property, all costs of which will be charged directly to your suite’s account.”

Residents are banned from having social gatherings in the large social room on the top floor. In an annual letter, resent on June 15, 2026, the statement, repeated from previous years, is included and says, “leaseholder-organized social events are not permitted on El Cid common property. Further, any events held outside of El Cid property must not be referred to as being in any way associated with Sheridan or El Cid."

NOTES FROM RESIDENTS

Residents of the EL Cid and Westsea Towers who were previously allowed dishwashers have been instructed to remove them.

Another resident of Westsea Towers on Harwood reported that when they purchased, they visited their lawyer to sign the papers; he asked if they knew what they were doing. Unfortunately, it was too late to back out then. The Westsea Tower resident admitted they hadn’t researched private leaseholds.

Yet another Westsea Tower resident reported that the resident manager makes things difficult for companies privately hired to complete legally approved suite renovations, disallowing the renovation companies access to elevators, hallways, parking, and causing one company to give up and leave, delaying the renovations for three months.

MOUNTING COSTS

On February 6, 2024, Sheridan Investments sent letters to all El Cid residents, stating there would be four expensive upgrades over the years through spring 2027. Re-piping of the building, $4,600,000; pool and lobby roofing replacement, $200,000; exterior building restoration project, $5,000,000; Tower roofing replacement project, $600,000.

The letter adds, “the remediation project will be charged to leaseholders as an operating expense or assessed by way of a special assessment in accordance with the El Cid Lease.”

Leaseholders must pay these assessments by post-dated cheques. The average costs per unit (charges are based on square footage) for the listed projects are: pipes, $23,834.00; pool and lobby, $1,036; exterior building restoration project, $25,906; and the tower roofing project, $3,108.

In June 2024, Sheridan Investments informed residents they had to pay an additional $769 in deficiency payments for a budget shortfall, and on June 23, 2025, the leaseholders were advised to pay, on average, $2,206 for another budget shortfall. These payments are in addition to the regular monthly maintenance fee of $822 on average.

Leaseholders cannot sell their units if they owe money to the building owner. The building owner must sign off to allow a Leaseholder to sell, so they can prevent sales by leaseholders who owe money.

BACK IN COURT

The St. Pierre on Harwood recently had a better court experience. In 2017, a new owner purchased the building under the company name 1534 Harwood Street (St. Pierre) Ltd, owned by Denise She.

Leaseholders experienced a decline in services, felt maintenance standards had deteriorated, were charged for maintenance work that was never done, and questioned why they were charged 1534 Harwood (St. Pierre)’s legal costs.

The leaseholders took their complaints to the Civil Resolution Tribunal, a BC Government online programme that provides easy, affordable access for claimants, including self-represented litigants.

Unfortunately, this programme is limited to a maximum award of $5,000.

She’s company responded by petitioning the provincial court to consolidate the CRT claims into a single action, and She’s lawyers sent many letters to the lessees urging them to discontinue their court action.

The lessees filed new claims in BC provincial court, alleging that She’s company, 1534 Harwood (St. Pierre) Ltd., failed to return overpaid maintenance fees and to provide audited financial statements, thereby breaching the lease.

The case went to the BC Supreme Court, where Justice Warren B. Milman found in favour of the lessees on several of their requests, but not all. The judge found the owner was in breach of the lease for not providing annual audits for several years, and ordered She to provide them for the three years they were missing.

The justice also found She’s company failed to keep the building’s common areas in good condition and allowed fire safety equipment and systems in the building to fall into disrepair, resulting in warnings from the City of Vancouver.

The justice also found that Harwood could not charge the lessees the $530,000 in legal expenses incurred in defending the case, as requested. Milman ordered the landlord, 1534 Harwood (St Pierre) Ltd., to stop charging its legal bills to the lessees and to provide the audited reports it failed to provide.

At the time of writing, the lessees are awaiting the results of phase two of the case on the award of damages to remedy the breaches, as well as punitive damages, court costs, and a determination on whether the judge agrees with 1534 Harwood (St. Pierre) Ltd.'s alleged abuse of process by the plaintiffs and if the owner will have to return the legal fees already paid for by the leaseholders, that Justice Milman says do not fit the lease. To read the entire judgement, see the Justice Milman link below.

Ms. She is very active in the Lower Mainland real estate world, as shown in a 2016 article in Business In Vancouver.

KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO.

Readers who think leaseholders should have known better may be misled. The contracts are long and complicated. Private leaseholds allowed those with less money to purchase, not realizing they were effectively long-term renters paying all the building owner's costs.

Plenty of advice says paying an informed lawyer to review your real estate purchase contracts/leases is money well spent in the long term, especially with private leaseholds where contracts are complicated, and no provincial laws protect leaseholders.

TELL THE POWERS THAT BE YOUR STORY

One West End leaseholder asks that residents of private leaseholds and their supporters write to key government contacts with their concerns:

“We need to keep reminding these elected politicians and government officials that Leaseholders need help. Leaseholders currently have ZERO laws and need at least minimum oversight legislation that provides transparency, accountability, and fairness. Legislation is badly needed to protect leaseholders and ensure we can continue to live in our homes. Let our politicians know your own story, what your concerns are, and not only what your problems are, but add any solutions that YOU might have to present to government for Leasehold issues. Your voice counts!

“Contact and send a copy of your email or letter to all of the following:

Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Christine Boyle at hma.minister@gov.bc.ca. Phone: (250) 953-4844.
Spencer Chandra Herbert, M.L.A. for Vancouver-West End at s.chandraherbert.mla@leg.bc.ca. Phone: (604) 660-7307.
BC Premier David Eby at premier.gov.bc.ca. Phone: (250) 387-1715.
BC Housing Policy Branch at housing.policy@gov.bc.ca. Phone: (250) 387-6467.
MP Hedy Fry at hedy.fry@parl.gc.ca. Phone: (604) 666-0135

“Thank you to all who have written or emailed your politicians and the government. But again, if you haven't written or emailed yet, please do so, and share this message with others.”

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