GROW-OP TENANTS FIGHT ON

Ralph and Ronald Fulber are fighting all the way to B.C's highest court to
prevent their landlord from evicting them for running a marijuana growing
operation.

The two brothers, who live in rented houses in the community of Britannia
Beach north of Horseshoe Bay, run a grow op in the houses as well as in the
basement of a third house Ralph Fulber rents in the community.

Even though police have charged the Fulbers -- as well as Ronald Fulber's
wife, Filomena -- for growing marijuana, B.C. laws state that landlords
cannot evict tenants for illegal activities unless those have a serious
impact on the premises.

Ralph Fulbers' landlord is PricewaterhouseCoopers, because the whole former
mining town is in receivership.

When the accounting firm attempted to evict Fulber from both houses last
year, he challenged the eviction at B.C.'s Residential Tenancy Branch.

The arbitrator concluded that growing marijuana does not necessarily have a
serious impact on the landlord, but ruled that Ralph Fulber's full-scale
operation could damage the property and supported the eviction. She noted
that the Fulbers had installed extra wiring and lighting in the houses and
that police found many plants in varying degrees of maturity on the premises.

The Fulbers were ordered to vacate the houses by March 31 this year but
they took their case to the B.C. Supreme Court to ask for a judicial review
of the arbitrator's decision.

Last month the judge backed the arbitrator's decision to evict Ralph
Fulber, but ordered another arbitration hearing in Ronald's case because he
was only growing plants in an upstairs closet only.

Ralph Fulber's lawyer is to be in court today to ask for permission to go
to the B.C. Court of Appeal with his fight.

Al Kemp of the Rental Owners and Managers Association of B.C. said the
Fulbers' case is the third in the past two years where landlords have had
to fight to evict tenants with illegal grow operations.

In March last year, a Victoria landlord tried to evict a tenant for
cultivating marijuana in an apartment, but the arbitrator ruled that the
tenant could stay because the grow op was not a fire hazard.

A Fraser Valley landlord was also ordered to pay $3,000 for smoke damage to
his tenants' belongings after their grow op burned down the house.

"It's just not right, and it's not logical," said Kemp. "The government is
telling landlords it's OK for tenants to break the law, as long as they
don't break it too much." Even small grow ops can cause damage - and
they're illegal.

Landlord's right to evict limited

What the Residential Tenancy Act says:

"A landlord may, at any time, give the tenant a notice of the end of the
tenancy agreement if...the safety or other lawful right of interest of the
landlord or other occupant if the residential property has been seriously
impaired by an act or omission of the tenant or of a person permitted in or
on the residential property or residential premises by the tenant" (Section
36(1)(f).

A May 2000 information bulletin from the Residential Tenancy Office states:

"Conclusive evidence of a full-scale marijuana grow operation could support
the giving of a notice on this ground [Section 36(1)(f)] due both to the
high likelihood of serious damage to the premises and the risk of harm to
other tenants. If a tenant's illegal activity is causing no damage to the
landlord or other tenants, and is not likely to cause any risk or damage,
the landlord may not be successful in ending the tenancy on this ground."