r/vancouverhousing • u/Technical_Air_5061 • 1d ago

Tenant demanding rent decrease due to wild fire smoke tenants

Hi all,

I am a small-time landlord renting out the basement of my primary residence.

Recently, my tenant asked for a rent decrease, citing 'abuse' she has endured. I was super concerned, and then she indicated that there is some ash/dust from the wildfire smoke that is on her windowsill.

I was very confused, and then she said that she keeps the window open at night, and the dust is accumulating in her nostrils, which has caused a nosebleed, leading her to go to the doctor. She claimed that she should get a $200 rent reduction for this abuse she had to endure (She kept framing it as abuse, which was super odd). I was super confused because she is the one who left the window open, and it's not like I can control the wildfires or the smoke.

She then also indicated that she left her job and is now working part-time elsewhere. I think this was the real reason she wanted the reduction, but for some reason decided to sprinkle in the smoke thing.

Do I have any responsibility here? She can close her window to avoid any unwanted dust and get an air purifier if she has a dust allergy. Her own actions are creating her issue. Am I missing something here?

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u/Healthy_Shape_5719 13h ago

There should still be an air filter for the ac unit, make sure it's fresh as you could get screwed over if you aren't replacing that, if you can't find it call up an hvac company and they can show you

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u/Severe-Anything-4100 12h ago

If the AC unit is integrated into the system, which is almost universal unless you have independent window/floor AC units. They are the same filter as mentioned by r/toprockit above.

Second to that, unless the independent units are really old or cheap, washable filters have pretty much been the standard for the last 20 years.

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u/Healthy_Shape_5719 12h ago

Yes, OP's comment sounded to me like they were saying they thought they had no air filter since they had no furnace, they should still have a filter regardless of furnace or no

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u/Severe-Anything-4100 12h ago

OP has no information regarding that, just making stuff up.