West End tenants accuse new landlord of harassment and attempted evictions for profit

A group of tenants in a West End apartment building accuse a prominent Vancouver landlord, who has been in hot water before, of attempting to evict them solely to move in new tenants at higher rents.

Anoop Majithia, owner of Plan A Real Estate, owns several buildings and condo units in the downtown peninsula and claims he’s doing everything by the book at the Nelson Street building he purchased in April.

Dozens of protestors marched on Plan A’s Seymour Street office for a rally Tuesday.

Tenant Paula Payot has been living in her one-bedroom unit for four years and says she is now fighting an eviction notice she received after trying to get her partner added to the lease so the two can live together.

She accuses the landlord of trying to force her out for the sole purpose of getting a new tenant at a much higher rent.

"Just having a partner move in isn't an unreasonable request, especially if you've been together for a very long time, you know,” she said. “It's kind of outrageous to think that some people aren't allowing this."

She says her partner is not currently living in her unit, something the landlord disputes.

CTV News asked Majithia what evidence he has to support his allegation Payot is not being truthful.

“Because other tenants have told us that they regularly see this person in the building, they see his car, they always assumed that he was a tenant,” he said.

It will be up to the Residential Tenancy Branch to determine if that is sufficient evidence.

In the meantime, Majithia says he has come under attack through a postering campaign in the West End.

"Beware of West End slumlord. And another one. Got pests?” he said as he showed a poster with a picture of his face with devil horns. “They thought it would be OK to put my face deranged in various ways on these posters."

It’s not clear exactly who is responsible for the posters which have been plastered on walls, mail boxes and telephone polls in the neighbourhood.

Marie Weeks, another tenant in the building, says she has been under threat of eviction as well.

"It has been so horrible. It has been very hard on my mental health and my physical well-being,” she said.

In 2022, the Compliance and Enforcement Unit of the RTB fined Plan A Real Estate $10,000 for attempting to circumvent the Residential Tenancy Act on 152 different leases.

Majithia insists he is doing everything by the book at the Nelson Street building despite the bad blood with the tenants.

"I think that their goal is that by engaging in defamation and rallies and doing things that are maybe illegal, that they will pressure our company into letting them self-govern the building irregardless of what the law is and that's not going to happen,” he said.

So far, no evictions have been successfully carried out since Plan A bought the building.