Landlord sells building after tenants win

Landlord sells building after tenants win

HOUSING / ‘It’s not just a provincial issue, it’s a national issue’ : tenants’ lawyer

Published in XTRA West

Shauna Lewis / Vancouver / Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Ownership of an apartment building located in the heart of the gay village has changed hands following the announcement of a Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) ruling that overturned the landlord’s attempt to evict several tenants to carry out renovations.

For David Bronstein (right) and his partner, Donald Ransom, the eviction fight took its toll. The couple decided to move out of Seafield last July after Ransom suffered a heart attack. “We felt we were forced to move,” Bronstein said.

Jason Gordon of Gordon Nelson Investments says his company has sold the Seafield building at 1436 Pendrell St for $3,688,000 – nearly $240,000 more than what it was purchased for in 2008.

The sale was announced Feb 23, following the RTB’s ruling.

Gordon would not disclose the identity of the buyers, but says he expects the deal to be closed on March 1.

“It’s been an absolute clusterfuck for everyone involved,” Gordon says of the two-year dispute, the reason he gave for selling the building.

Dispute resolution officer D Vaughn stated in the decision that “on a balance of probabilities,” Gordon Nelson Investments’ claim that it needed to evict tenants to undertake renovations is “undermined by their ulterior, primary motive of achieving a substantial rent increase.”

Vaughn also stated that he suspected the landlords served the notices to end tenancy because they were “unsuccessful in their attempt to achieve significantly higher rates for the rental units in question.”

“We hope this is a signal to other developers and other landlords that it’s not going to be easy to kick tenants out,” Douglas King, a lawyer for the tenants, said during a press conference held outside the Seafield building on Feb 23.

“We’re here today to celebrate a victory,” agreed Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert.

However, despite the celebrations, tenants and housing advocates say more must be done.

“We’ve won today but the war remains,” Chandra Herbert said. “For every building like the Seafield there could be dozens of buildings that don’t fight – that give up,” he said.

“It’s good news for the Seafielders but it [also] points out that changes need to be made to the whole [Residential Tenancy Act],” added Andrew Simmons of Emerald Terrace apartments, another West End complex that has also been embroiled in eviction hearings with their landlord Hollyburn.

“Why is it that tenants have to enforce the law?” Simmons asked.

Seafield tenant Melissa Mewdell said the Residential Tenancy Act is “broken,” and must be addressed to stop landlords from using “predatory business tactics.”

“I’m not sure how a system that allows this to happen in the first place can be called a working system,” she added. “It’s really no way to live,” she said of the constant worry of losing her home. “We have lost people to this [battle] and not everyone can fight.”

For David Bronstein and his partner, Donald Ransom, the fight took its toll and the couple decided to move out of Seafield last July after Ransom suffered a heart attack. “We felt we were forced to move,” Bronstein told Xtra, adding that the stress of “not knowing day to day what would happen next,” was just too much for the aging couple.

“This [win] never would have happened if it weren’t for that hard work of the Seafielders,” King pointed out, adding that “we are not sure this is the end of the issue.”

He called on the federal government to take notice of the problem. “It’s not just a provincial issue, it’s a national issue,” he argued.

As the Seafielders celebrate their victory, Gordon says his company has washed their hands of any ongoing and further action against the tenants.

“The deal is over,” Gordon said. But he too predicts the tenants’ fight will be an ongoing on.

“They’re never going to win this,” he says. “The next owners will want [market value] rent. This issue is not going to end.”

West End tenants win ‘renoviction’ case

BY: ROBYN SMITH
Vancouver— Globe and Mail Update

Published Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011 5:40PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011 6:00PM EST

 

After a two-and-a-half year long battle, a tight-knit community of tenants in Vancouver’s West End will not be forced to leave their homes for renovations.

B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch ruled that the landlords of the 80-year-old Seafield apartment building acted “in bad faith” by attempting to evict tenants under the pretence of renovating.

The decision comes after a series of disputes between landlords Gordon Nelson Inc. and the tenants of 1436 Pendrell St.

After purchasing the building in 2008, the landlords served tenants with an eviction notice to leave their apartments for two months or face rent increases.

According to Brian Broster, who has lived in the Seafield for 17 years, the tenants protested the notice. The dispute was taken to the Residential Tenancy Branch, where the landlords applied for approval to hike rents up to 73 per cent. The tenancy branch approved a rent increase of up to 38 per cent, but the tenants appealed that decision in court. The landlords’ application to raise the rent was returned back to the tenancy branch for a rehearing, which was dismissed entirely in Oct. 2010.

Ten days after the dismissal, the landlords served the tenants with another eviction notice for renovation.

The Residential Tenancy Act permits landlords to evict tenants for renovations and to raise rents once the units come back on the market. Some landlords have used the pretence of renovations to turn out renters paying less than market rates, an act casually known as a “renoviction.” However, a dispute resolution officer with the Residential Tenancy Branch ruled the timing of the later eviction notice demonstrated the landlords’ “ulterior, primary motive of achieving a substantial rent increase,” and cancelled the eviction notices.

Mr. Broster called the decision a “victory” for renters.

“The process of collecting evidence against these landlords is onerous. It’s a full-time job, and everyone is this building has cohesively pulled together to fight every single broadside attack from these landlords,” he said.West End tenants win ‘renoviction’ case

 

Vancouver Apartment Owner Acted in Bad Faith

Vancouver Apartment Owner Acted in Bad Faith, Residential Tenancy Branch rules

Originally posed in the Vancouver Sun

By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun February 23, 2011 10:03 AM

VANCOUVER – A West End apartment owner acted in bad faith in trying to mass-evict the 14 tenants of his building 10 days after failing to win a 73 per cent rent increase, the Residential Tenancy Branch ruled Monday.

 

In a decision hailed by legal aid lawyers as a rare and strongly-worded rebuke, the branch overturned eviction notices issued by Gordon Nelson Inc. last year for residents of the three-storey Seafield Apartments at 1436 Pendrell St.

 

Adjudicator D. Vaughn said he accepted the residents’ arguments that Gordon Nelson’s motive for trying to evict them was likely in retribution for their successfully beating back the rent increases.

 

“In the circumstances before me I find that, on a balance of probabilities, the landlord was not acting in good faith when they served the tenants with notices to end tenancy,” he wrote. “Rather, I find it likely that the (notices) were served because the landlord was unsuccessful in their attempt to achieve significantly higher rates of rent for the rental units in question.”

 

The decision is the third major setback for Gordon Nelson, which bought the 75-year-old building in 2008. Almost immediately it issued rent increases of 73 per cent. Some of the residents had lived there since 1960 and all were considered long-term tenants.

 

The residents challenged the rents before the Residential Tenancy Branch, which instead approved an increase of 38 per cent. The residents then appealed for a judicial review, and B.C. Supreme Court set aside the increase and sent the case back to the branch for reconsideration. The branch subsequently sided with the residents and in November, 2010 threw out the rent increase entirely.

 

Ten days later Gordon Nelson served eviction notices to everyone saying it needed the building empty to carry out renovations. The tenants said none of the repairs required them to move out.

 

In his ruling, Vaughn said it was likely that Gordon Nelson bought the building with the intent of evicting the residents on mass in order to raise rents. He also said the timing of the eviction notices was suspect, coming almost immediately after the company lost the judicial review.

 

“Therefore, I find that the landlord is attempting to end these tenancies in bad faith,” the adjudicator wrote.

 

Don King, a staff lawyer for Pivot Legal Society, which represented the tenants, hailed the ruling.

 

“The decision was basically that the owner was operating in bad faith, and that’s not an easy thing to get from the Residential Tenancy Branch,” he said. “That’s an important finding.”

 

He said the ruling doesn’t protect the tenants from yet another notice of eviction or rent increase. But he said Gordon Nelson can’t use the same arguments of needing vacancy in order to carry out repairs.

 

jefflee@vancouversun.com