B.C. court overturns RTB decision evicting man on disability

The B.C. Supreme Court has overturned a Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) decision that permitted the eviction of a Vancouver man on disability who spent months dealing with the fallout from the ministry's $45 underpayment of his rent last year. 

Justice Lisa Warren called the government agency's ruling "patently unreasonable" in a court decision posted Tuesday. 

The man moved into a downtown subsidized building for low‑income individuals operated by the Kettle Friendship Society in February of 2023, according to the court judgment.

Because the tenant receives disability assistance from the province, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction directly and fully paid his $420-a-month rent.

But the ministry's payment for April 2023 was accidentally short $45, Warren wrote. The underpayment would eventually lead to a fight over an eviction notice at the Residential Tenancy Branch.

According to the court ruling, the tenant received two letters from the landlord informing him about the shortfall and then two warning letters over the next five months. The tenant said he paid the $45 himself, though Warren wrote that he had difficulty providing evidence for that at the RTB hearing.

The court ruling also said that the landlord served the tenant with a one-month notice of eviction for cause on Sept. 19, despite the fourth letter giving him until the end of the month to pay the outstanding amount. 

The tenant sought to cancel the notice through the RTB, but the agency sided with the landlord and its evidence in a Jan. 10 decision.

Arbitrator Brian Ho Yee wrote that the tenant didn't pay the remaining $45 and that he was made aware of it on several occasions. Based on these factors, he found that the rent was not paid in full more than three times, the minimum number required to justify an eviction notice. 

Warren disagreed with the arbitrator's conclusion. She also wrote that he "gave no consideration" to the fact that the ministry paid the man's rent and that there was ever only one small shortfall.

"In other words, it is clearly unreasonable on its face, and it cannot rationally be supported on the record that was before the arbitrator," the judge wrote. 

She added that throughout the legal challenge, the tenant was able to obtain stays from the B.C. Supreme Court to continue residing in his apartment. 

The B.C. Ministry of Housing told CBC News that the RTB received 12,039 applications for dispute resolution in the first six months of 2024. During the same time frame, it said the agency was served with 116 judicial review petitions —  just under one per cent of its cases.  

Warren awarded costs to the man but not to the Kettle Friendship Society, according to the court ruling. 

"I am not suggesting that the landlord acted improperly in taking steps to enforce the RTB order, but the reality is that the timelines tenants have to act within these matters are tight," the judge wrote. 

The society said in a statement to CBC News that it doesn't take evictions lightly and works with tenants to find solutions if there is a late or missed rent payment. 

It also said there are "other reasons" for the eviction notice in this particular case, but it declined to outline them because it is "still actively engaged in RTB arbitration on this matter."

Warren noted in her court ruling that it does not prevent the RTB from having another hearing to address the other grounds.

Jared Cummings, a lawyer who represented the tenant, said in a statement to CBC News that his team is pleased with the court ruling.