B.C. landlord can’t evict tenant, even though renter is in jail

A North Vancouver landlord is baffled by a Residential Tenancy Branch decision that won’t allow him to evict a convicted killer who destroyed his suite and was arrested in a police standoff in January.

The reason Jason Jaguar Rivero can’t end the tenancy agreement with his renter, Alexander Dinu Tanasescu?

Alexander Dinu Tanasescu killed a fellow inmate at Fraser Valley Correctional Centre in 2010. (Facebook)

Because Tanasescu is in jail, so Rivero could not personally serve him with information about the hearing, in accordance with the Residential Tenancy Act.

“This person killed somebody in jail,” said Rivero. “He threatened me and my family.… After what I told them, after all the pitfalls, they decided I couldn’t end the tenancy because I couldn’t serve the required documents personally to Mr. Tanasescu, who was in jail and unreachable.”

Tanasescu killed a fellow inmate at Fraser Regional Correctional Centre in 2010. He beat the man to death in a mixed-martial-arts-style attack after his victim called him a “goof.”