It appears as if Vancouver’s Aragon Properties chose a pretty heartless time to send out rent increase notices to tenants at The Artiste building in the Brewery Creek area yesterday.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

YES this is a rental increase notice. YES. We received this today. YES. I called @aragonforward to discuss the timing and accuracy of these increases. YES. The senior property manager told me it was “business as usual” even in this social climate. YES. They were rather insensitive to the fact that our building is probably 70% film industry / artists / gig workers. No. I’m not letting this happen if I can help it . #rentfreeze @ctvvancouver. @cbc @cbcvancouver @globalnews @globalbc @theprovince @thevancouversun @narcitycanada @thenarwhalca @georgiastraight @mayorkennedystewart

A post shared by Tosh (@ttosheath) on Mar 17, 2020 at 5:38pm PDT

It seems in direct contravention of the words and spirit of the tenant relations page on their website:

“Your home at the Artiste is your space to let your most creative inner self soar within a community of kindred spirits. At The Artiste we’re dedicated to making every aspect of renting and leasing easier and more enjoyable. We believe in treating tenants fairly while keeping a good balance of rights and responsibilities in the landlord/tenant relationship.”

I’d like to think this wouldn’t happen in a time of crisis, but this being Vancouver…I gotta say it’s hardly surprising. When I reached out to The Artiste this morning to give the building manager the opportunity to comment, I was told he was in a board meeting. My hope is that the meeting is to address rescinding the notice of increase, but it might just be that greed is immune to everything, even shame and good sense. Don’t let this sort of example set the tone. It doesn’t take much effort or thought to do so much better than this.

UPDATE: I just received the following note from a representative of Aragon Properties…

I’m reaching out on behalf of Aragon Properties and the article that just went up on rent increases at The Artiste. I want you to know this was an oversight and the situation is being rectified as we speak. Could you please update your story to include the below statement, to be attributed to Aragon Properties?

“Aragon Properties has formally revoked the rent increase that was delivered on March 17th. Our team sincerely apologizes for the oversight. This rent increase was to take effect in June/July 2020 and was scheduled to automatically distribute before the situation with the COVID-19 virus escalated and its an oversight for which we take full responsibility. Aragon will be absorbing these rent increases, as we understand this is a difficult time for all of us. We encourage residents to reach out to us directly if they have further concerns.”