Vancouver

Oof that's a great read.

Having been sued by former landlords, and successfully counter-suing same landlords in the US, most of them are utterly ignorant of the laws and relevant code.

At best they know the parts that support their interests, without understanding the balancing parts that protect the tenant.

They also don't understand that judges tend to be sympathetic to the tenants position, as they too have family that have to deal with scummy landlords, and judges see scummy landlords every day.

This landlord will enjoy their $30k comeuppance payments to their former tenant they tried to screw over. Love it.

On the question of fairness, Kaur told the court she had not been “sufficiently put on notice” that the case would be about whether she completed renovations to the property in a timely manner, rather than whether she had attempted to re-rent the property to her former tenant.

“Wahhh! Nobody held my hand and explained the law to me! That’s not fair!”

Taylor was unimpressed by this argument, writing in his decision that its “fundamental weakness” was that it was based primarily on “her own ignorance about the applicable law, rather than any specific procedural steps taken or not taken by the arbitrator.”

Say it with me, kids: “ignorance of the law is not an excuse!”

In mid-April 2022, Kaur gave Javier a two-month notice to end tenancy for landlord’s use of the property. The eviction notice indicated that she would be moving into the home with her partner and children. According to the decision, Javier moved out on June 1 and Kaur began renovating the property. Then, in late September 2022, Kaur sent Javier a series of text messages that is partly reproduced in Justice Matthew Taylor’s decision, as follows:

“Hi how are you doing Are you looking for rent the house? We fully renovated and extended the house with 5 bedrooms and 4 full bathrooms. Let me know if you are still interested I was like I can ask you first. But this time will be $5,000 rent. It’s with AC unit and fireplace everything brand new. If you want you can come look at it. Am putting on rent add in this week. So just telling you advance."

Easiest $30k you could ever make, but sadly this landlord just banks it all back in 6 months (if they find a new renter).

Some landlords are just arrogant assholes. We know somebody that was evicted with the notice that landlord was moving in. On the day of move out a new tenant was moving in at same time (and not a family member). They won the year rent in court, but getting the landlord to pay is another issue