Celan’s tenants provided her with checks for the first month’s rent and damage deposit, as well as post-dated checks for the first year. But the first one bounced. The checks were fraudulent. As weeks went by without rent, Celan tried to go through official channels to evict her tenants. After a hearing with housing rentals, she was ordered by the manager that her tenants had to pay her the missing rent and vacate the unit. But months later, the tenants still haven’t paid the rent and are still living in her unit. “It’s basically become a full-time job trying to find different ways to deal with the different components of this, dealing with the stress of it,” he said. “The emotional toll is really, really overwhelming. It’s completely drained me.” Celan is now on a leave of absence from her studies and more deeply in debt. He believes the slow process and lack of enforcement of residential rentals can encourage people who break the law, letting them get away with it.
Appeal for provincial enforcement unit
According to province of Nova Scotiawhen a landlord or tenant has a problem with the other party that they are unable to resolve on their own, they can apply to the director of the Residential Rental Program for mediation or a hearing. If mediation is unsuccessful, the two parties may proceed to a hearing with a housing rental officer. Within 14 days, the officer will make a decision. The other party has 10 days to appeal, then the order can be enforced in small claims court. Kevin Russell, executive director of the Nova Scotia Real Estate Investment Owners Association, said his organization is asking the government to create a compliance and enforcement unit starting in July 2021. “Laws that are supposed to protect property owners and tenants from abuse need better enforcement by the Nova Scotia government,” Russell said in a statement.
Missing damage deposit
Ahmad Almallah is a tenant who moved out of a Halifax unit last August. He said the unit was cleaned and there was no damage, and he received positive feedback from the unit’s property manager, so he expected to get his $1,575 damage deposit back. A year later, he has not received the money. In December 2021, after going through the tenancy hearing process, Almalah went to small claims court, but his former landlord still didn’t pay. Ahmad Almallah says his fight isn’t even about money anymore. (Robert Guertin/CBC) “It showed that the owner is very bold in his attitude, where he knows that nothing is going to be enforced, nothing is going to happen against him,” Almala said. After receiving a small claims court enforcement order, Almallah said he has the option of paying $100 for a sheriff to collect the money from his former owner’s bank, but he has no way of knowing where he banks. “The issue is deeply rooted, I think, with the housing rental board where there needs to be more enforcement,” he said. “I think the issue is bigger than my issue.” Mark Culligan of Dalhousie Legal Aid says in his work with tenants, he sees landlords who repeatedly break the law for years without any punishment. (Robert Guertin/CBC) Mark Culligan, a community legal officer who represents tenants in disputes with landlords, said he has seen the lack of enforcement affect a significant number of his clients. He said that without enforcement, Nova Scotia’s rental housing system “creates fertile ground for abuse” by landlords. “If no one is punished when they break the law, then people will go ahead and break the law.”
The government is working on enforcement
Last month, the minister responsible for the rental housing scheme, Colton Leblanc, said his department was working on enforcement. “Enforcement is complicated,” Leblanc said. “There is a small minority of renters and landlords who may not be following the rules as they are in the law … we are looking at these areas very cautiously and look forward to bringing these changes potentially in the future to the legislature. “ Leblanc said the Nova Scotia Department of Service and Internal Services is conducting research and jurisdictional scans on how enforcement mechanisms could be implemented in Nova Scotia.
Looking at other provinces
Culligan said the absence of a “meaningful system of fines” has a disproportionate impact on renters and the province’s housing crisis has “exposed” the weakness of the enforcement system. “I think for a long time, the political class in Nova Scotia didn’t think leases were a problem,” he said. “[They thought] there were a lot of empty units and people could just move when there was a problem. But now we don’t have that luxury and we have to catch up when it comes to creating a workable legal system to enforce the law.” He said some provinces, such as Ontario and British Columbia, have a department of compliance and enforcement or a system of administrative fines that the director of residential rentals can impose on people who break the law. “If other provinces are doing it and doing it better, then let’s start there.” Russell also pointed to other jurisdictions. “A law is only as good as its enforcement,” he said. “Many landlords have no choice when tenants abuse the system, don’t pay affordable rents, damage or destroy property, or threaten other tenants. We also know that tenants are frustrated. Nova Scotia needs to properly enforce the Residential Tenancies Act , with the kind of enforcement unit we see in other Canadian provinces.” Celan says the apartment she rents on Jamieson Street in Dartmouth has suffered about thousands of dollars worth of damage from her tenants. (David Laughlin/CBC) In her efforts to recoup her losses, Celan went to the police to report her tenants for fraud and damage, but was told it was a rental issue. In reading the Residential Tenancies Act, he found an option for enforcement that included a summary conviction. “Does the police give a ticket? Does the court give something? Does the housing board give something? Everyone I asked said, ‘It’s not us.’ Nobody seems to know how to enforce that.” Celan’s tenants have appealed the manager’s order and a new hearing has been set for August 31. Celan hopes to be able to get them out of her unit by mid-September. “Knowing that there might be light at the end of the tunnel gives me hope,” she said. “But, having said that, I also thought there was light at the end of the tunnel many other times.” MORE TOP STORIES
