Some dog owners living in a Burnaby, B.C., apartment building are raising a stink after they were told to provide a stool sample from their pets or face eviction.
This follows the discovery of unknown excrement twice in the building’s stairwell, with the landlord claiming refusal to provide a dog poop sample for DNA analysis is an admission of guilt.
Vancouver-based residential tenancy lawyer Alex Chang is unconvinced. “If there’s no provision under the lease, then I don’t see on what basis the landlord would have to ask for a dog stool sample.”
He says the more conventional approach is to collect a pet-specific damage deposit.
“Dealing with damage from pets has a remedy on the Residential Tenancy Act, which is that they can act for a pet deposit beforehand, and then seek to keep that deposit if there’s damage,” says Chang.
In his four years practicing residential tenancy law, Chang says he has yet to come across a similar case.
Agencies/Canadajournal
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