When John rented his Victoria family home to a newly divorced mother of two kids, who said she just needed a place to get back on her feet, it seemed like the ideal situation.

But less than a year later, he was stunned to discover his Fairfield property had devolved into one of Victoria’s most notorious drug houses — where gangsters came and went at all times of the night, where there were fights in the driveway, garbage on the front lawn, and feces, needles and used condoms strewn about inside.

His journey to eviction took months, and was full of bureaucracy and delays in a provincial tenancy system not equipped to respond to that kind of problem. The damage to his home from the broken doors, smashed walls and destroyed furniture will likely exceed $50,000.

It’s a nightmare scenario for John (not his real name, as the homeowners have requested anonymity due to the organized criminals they’ve evicted).

But he’s not alone. It’s part of the rising trend of “cuckooing,” where drug dealers take over the home of a person suffering addictions, who is in a vulnerable situation, and turn the property into a base of operations for drug dealing and production.

“Landlords who know or suspect criminal activity is occurring in their home are helpless,” said John.

“The police are unable to get involved. And the Residential Tenancy Branch is weighted so heavily against landlords, it's nearly impossible to remove tenants, even if there is an immediate threat to the neighborhood and property.”

John and his family had lived in the Victoria home for years before taking a new job in Vancouver. They had successfully rented out the old house to several tenants. On paper, this new one looked reliable too, he said. She even owned a local business with her ex.

But John didn’t realize she was in the early stages of a drug addiction. Only later would he discover she was also in the process of losing her business, her young children and pretty much everything, as the dealers moved in to prey on her debts inside........

© BIV