Bass Coast is back in Merritt, BC, for the 2024 festival season, and a recent small claims court dispute all but guarantees that at least one landlord will be in attendance.
Renter Jack William Cooper claimed to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal that he was evicted for asking his landlord, Glenn Cameron Wiley, to turn down his music.
Cooper's rental period began on December 10, 2022, and he alleged that Wiley forced him to move out on January 4, 2023, without notice, and refused to refund his $1,100 per month rent or $550 damage deposit.
Meanwhile, Wiley alleged that the renter abandoned his room because he wasn't fond the music being played, with texts from January 3 showing that Wiley told Cooper that he had left him a pair of earmuffs to try wearing the next time the music bothered him.
"Cooper himself says that Mr. Wiley was turning up the bass very loud, which he says affected his quiet enjoyment of the rented room," the tribunal decision reads. The tenant agreement Cooper signed notably demanded that he abide by stereo volume guidelines, agreeing not to have stereo sound volume at "excess of '14' setting on the DeWalt speaker."
Consequently, the tribunal didn't believe that Cooper had simply abandoned the room and found Wiley in violation of the rental agreement. The landlord was ordered to pay Cooper $1,728.13: $1,508.06 in damages and the rest in tribunal-related fees.
The property owner clearly took it to heart — and rhetorically — when Lil Jon famously once asked, "Turn down for what?"
