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Air conditioning has long been very rare in homes in Vancouver, but that's been changing in the past decade after a series of summer heat waves and rising tempe

Air conditioning has long been very rare in homes in Vancouver, but that's been changing in the past decade after a series of summer heat waves and rising temperatures. It's become a problem as many landlords and stratas ban the installation or operation of air conditioners, especially in older buildings where the wiring wasn't intended to support air conditioning loads. This has led to recent court battles where renters try to fight the bans, and also resulted in British Columbia updating the building code to ensure that all new buildings have at least one climate-controlled room (although it can be passively cooled).

mingus88 1y ago
It’s the same story all along the west coast of the U.S. There are high CoL areas with many rentals where up until 10 years ago the climate has been mild all summer. Seattle, Portland, SF, down to LA. Landlords have no desire to update their properties. Why would they when the investment home they bought in 1980 for $70k is now worth 1.5M and bringing in $3000/mo in income? That’s just taking money out of their poor empty pockets. There are many trending indicators I can see building up toward a big anti-capitalist movement and this kind of thing is top of mind. The utter disregard some landlords have toward the well being of their tenants…