Gordon Nelson Misplaces Rent Cheque, Issues Eviction Notice

Many believe Gordon Nelson Investments are trying yet another Seafield harassment tactic. This time it’s “losing” tenant cheques then rapidly serving eviction notices.

What is Chris Nelson and Jason Gordon up to now?

Seafielders were shocked to learn yesterday that Gordon Nelson Investments were attempting to evict a Seafield Apartments resident for not paying her rent — after they lost her rent cheque.

Wendy, who has lived at the Seafield for 31 years, has always paid her rent on time. She gives her rent cheques to the management – as per their request- three at a time in an envelope.

Putting November, December and January’s cheques together, she slid them under the management office door with other Seafielders as witnesses on October 3, 2008. Since her November and December cheques cleared, it was quite a surprise for her to find that her January rent hadn’t been taken out of her account by January 9.

On Friday that day, Gordon Nelson Investments’ building manager for the Seafield left Wendy a note on her door telling her to pay up by end of day and to include a $50 late fee. (The RTA allows for a maximum late fee of $25.)

On Saturday Wendy sent a registered letter to Gordon Nelson Investments explaining how she knows she had paid January’s rent — she has carbon copies of the three cheques she had written and submitted at the same time. On Monday she provided a duplicate copy of this letter when the building manager came knocking. All Wendy asked for in the registered letter was for them to look harder before she went to the trouble and expense of putting a stop-order on her original January cheque before writing a replacement cheque.

FULL STORY > http://seafieldapartments.com/gordon-nelson-misplaces-rent-cheque-issues-eviction-notice/746

Tenants take landlord to rental tribunal

Vancouver Province – January 16, 2009

Rodrigo Munoz and Emi. Photograph: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province

Hollyburn won’t honour verbal agreements

Seven tenants of a West End apartment block who are being told to get rid of their beloved pets or be evicted are taking their case to the B.C. Tenancy Branch today.

On Dec. 2, Hollyburn Properties, an apartment rentalcompany, ordered seven tenants of the Emerald Terrace on

Nelson Street to remove their pets. When they didn’t comply, eviction notices were served for Feb. 28.

Emerald tenant Andrew Simmons, a cat owner who is organizing the tenants’ fight, said the dispute “has nothing to do with cats.

“Hollyburn likes to get long-term renters out so it can jack up the rents. They’ve motivated us to fight,” said Simmons.

“Pets have thoughts and feelings. They’re just like little people. You can’t abandon them,” said Simmons, who is also facing eviction.

Tenant June MacGregor called the eviction notices “heart-wrenching.

“It’s your home. It’s the place where you come to feel safe. Your whole being is threatened,” she said.

Four of the tenants are senior women: MacGregor, 79, with cat Inspector Clouseau; Mary Milligan, 81, with Niko; Betty Roline, 73, with Dusty; and Ann Merchant, 67, with Sheba.

The tenants have lived in the building an average 11 years. All had verbal agreements to keep pets prior to the no-pets policy introduced when Hollyburn purchased the property 17 months ago. The company says it won’t honour verbal agreements.

Hollyburn general manager Allan Wasel said the policy is due to “potential health risks associated with animals, such as allergic reactions.” He said such reactions can sometimes be fatal.

Hollyburn Properties, a large apartment rental company, has been the subject of numerous complaints to the Residential Tenancy Branch.

“Tenants are absolutely scared of Hollyburn. They have a horrible reputation,” said Christine Ackermann, part of an action group called Renters at Risk Campaign.

“Hollyburn’s business plan is to kick tenants out, do cosmetic renovations and then charge higher rents to newcomers,” she said. “The pet evictions are new. They are horrible.”

Ackermann said buildings where Hollyburn tenants have been evicted for renovations include the Glenmore on Barclay, the Windsor on Barclay, the Casa Del Vandt on Cardero, the Nicola Place on Nicola, the Carlton on Burnaby Street and the Bay Tower on Harwood Street.

Hollyburn declined further comment.

In 1992, the B.C. Human Rights Council ordered Hollyburn to pay $20,000 for wrongfully dismissing two building managers.

The company was founded by Stephen Sander, a refugee who fled India decades ago.

From humble beginnings in the 1960s, Sander built the Vancouver company into a 1990s powerhouse worth an estimated $170 million. At that time, Hollyburn owned 23 residential apartment buildings.

Sander was born Sukhwant Singh in 1934 in a part of India that is now Pakistan.

He was taken to court by Revenue Canada in 1991 for allegedly understating his personal income by $1.1 million.

A judge later dismissed the charges, saying there was an unreasonable delay in the prosecution of the case.

Hollyburn’s current directors are Sander family members Paul Sander and Mark Sander.

kspencer@theprovince.com

Source – http://www.theprovince.com/Life/owners+appeal+eviction+notice/1182995/story.html

Emerald Terrace Tenants at the RTO

Friday, January 16, 2009

The Emerald Terrace pet-owning tenants were at the RTO from 9:30am-12:30pm today.

Andrew Simmons, lead tenant, reported that the Emerald Terrace tenants (ET’ers) felt a generally good vibe coming from the DRO (Dispute Resolution Officer). There was a sense of fairness in the room. Both sides and all tenants were given the opportunity to tell their story, their experience, their reality. Both sides were given the opportunity to present legal arguments and their submitted evidence.

Andrew reports that both sides were able to put forth closing arguments, but the DRO also gave both sides 7 more days to file a written rebuttal of the closing arguments. Then the DRO will have 30 days to present the written Decision. If the tenants lose, it will be accompanied by a possession order. If they win they will be allowed to keep their pets and not be evicted.

Even without a media advisory, many members of the media were waiting for the tenants this morning at the doors to the RTB.

They were allowed to film and interview in the lobby of the building, but not in the RTB offices. Andrew reports that the ET’ers routinely gave interviews during their 15 minute breaks.  There is also a good article about the story and some facts on Hollyburn on page A3 of the Province today.

Renters At Risk is enormously proud of the Emerald Terrace tenants for courageously fighting for their right to keep their pets and their homes and wish them a speedy, successful Decision. Congratulations on a successful day at the RTO Andrew, Pat, June, Mary, Leanne, Betty, Anne, Lola and Rodrigo!

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Hollyburn’s war against tenants

Posted By: Jackie Wong
01/15/2009 12:00 AM

Hollyburn refuses to speak to media; conducts war of attrition, intimidation and harassment

Seven tenants of the West End apartment building Emerald Terrace, at Nelson and Chilco Streets, will appear at the Residential Tenancy Office (RTO) in Burnaby on Friday (January 16) to fight to keep their pets in their suites, and to dispute a “no pets policy” notice the building’s property management company issued in late November.

Upon receipt of what seemed like a targeted letter, as only some of the building’s pet-owning tenants received it, the seven tenants filed for a joint arbitration which, at the time, allowed them to keep their pets until at least the arbitration date. They worked through the holidays to prepare for the arbitration, all the while fearing what they considered to be an inevitable eviction notice. The West Vancouver-based Hollyburn Properties, which owns the building, finally did deliver notices through their mail slots on the evening of January 6.

“I guess they couldn’t wait for the arbitration, so they issued eviction notices anyway,” says Andrew Simmons, a seven-year Emerald Terrace tenant who moved into the building with his three cats to escape the clutches of Hollyburn, which owned the building he previously lived in across the street. Simmons, a member of tenant advocacy group Renters at Risk, was aware of the notoriety Hollyburn had achieved through highly publicized mass evictions in the West End. When he moved into Emerald Terrace, it was owned by Colliers International and welcomed pets; the building manager at that time had verbal agreements with tenants allowing them to keep their pets. Hollyburn, which bought Emerald Terrace in September 2007, is now using that verbal agreement to penalize some — but not all — tenants with pets.

Upon receiving their eviction notices, Emerald Terrace tenants hastily filed a cross-application with the RTO to counter it. Simmons and his neighbours have spent what he says are “countless” hours working on the case, including multiple trips to the RTO and time off of work to deal with the situation.

“What is the benefit to Hollyburn by us giving up our cats?” Simmons says. “We’re not talking about a bunch of people who ran out and got pets yesterday as a violation of the rental agreement. We’re talking about people who’ve been here for years, and even decades, with pets.”

Vancouver-Burrard MLA Spencer Herbert spoke in support of Emerald Terrace tenants at a press conference on January 8, resulting in widespread mainstream-media coverage of the evictions.

“It’s a sad day when renters are being told that, really, they have no rights; they have to take it to the arbitration in order to stand up for something they’ve had for years,” Herbert said. “Just because Hollyburn has bought a building doesn’t mean they have the right to push people around and arbitrarily change the rules for people who have been longtime tenants.”

When WE contacted Wasel on Monday (January 12) for comment on the Emerald Terrace evictions, he replied, “Hollyburn will have no further comments at this time.”

Wasel issued a written statement to media last week which said the Residential Tenancy Act protects landlords and tenants, and that the eviction notices were issued to tenants who “breached the agreement” of a no-pets policy in the building, which was first instated in the form of the November no-pets notices. “They knowingly breached the agreement and therefore have no grounds to criticize Hollyburn for upholding the contract,” Wasel wrote in his statement.

In the meantime, Emerald Terrace tenants reportedly continue to be subjected to a series of suspicious intimidation tactics that Simmons says range from having their personal parking spots blocked by service vehicles, monthly suite inspections, and warning letters over what seem like arbitrary or untrue complaints.

When WE first spoke to Emerald Terrace tenants in November, a number of tenants came forward to describe how the building had fallen into disrepair since Hollyburn took ownership, damaging morale in the building and resulting in tenants — many of them seniors — fearing for their safety.

“The general feeling in this building is that tenants cannot go to Hollyburn to ask for things,” says Simmons. “They’re scared. They know as soon as they start asking or if they make waves, they become a target.”

If the pets in Emerald Terrace are forced out of the building, Simmons says he and the tenants who own them will leave instead of part with their animal companions. “Most landlords are good; they’re law-abiding, they’re compassionate, they’re human,” he says. “ It’s just a very few of these landlords, like Hollyburn, that are giving landlords a bad name. But these few [landlords] — when you look at previous stories, what they do is they practise a war of attrition, and it’s basically intimidation and harassment.”

Source – http://www.westender.com/articles/entry/tenants-continue-fight-for-pets

Cat Fight Begins Today

By Kent Spencer, The Province – January 15, 2009

Rodrigo Munoz and Emi - Photo: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province

Cat-owning tenants take on landlord over West End evictions

Seven tenants of a West End apartment block who are being told to get rid of their beloved pets or be evicted are taking their case to the B.C. Tenancy Branch Friday.

On Dec. 2, Hollyburn Properties, an apartment rental company, ordered seven tenants of the Emerald Terrace on Nelson Street to remove their pets.

When they didn’t comply, eviction notices were served for Feb. 28.

Emerald tenant Andrew Simmons, a cat owner who is organizing the tenants’ fight, said the dispute “has nothing to do with cats.”

“Hollyburn likes to get long-term renters out so it can jack up the rents,” she claims. “They’ve motivated us to fight.”

“Pets have thoughts and feelings. They’re just like little people. You can’t abandon them,” said Simmons, who is also facing eviction.

Tenant June MacGregor called the eviction notices “heart-wrenching.

“It’s your home. It’s the place where you come to feel safe. Your whole being is threatened,” she said.

Four of the tenants are senior women: MacGregor, 79, with cat Inspector Clouseau; Mary Milligan, 81, with Niko; Betty Roline, 73, with Dusty; and Ann Merchant, 67, with Sheba.

The tenants have lived in the building an average 11 years.

All had verbal agreements to keep pets before the no-pets policy introduced when Hollyburn purchased the property 17 months ago.

The company says it won’t honour verbal agreements.

Hollyburn general manager Allan Wasel said the policy is due to “potential health risks associated with animals, such as allergic reactions.”

He said such reactions can sometimes be fatal.

Hollyburn Properties, a large apartment rental company, has been the subject of numerous complaints to the Residential Tenancy Branch.

“Tenants are absolutely scared of Hollyburn,” said Christine Ackermann, part of an action group called Renters at Risk Campaign.

Ackermann said buildings where Hollyburn tenants have been evicted include the Glenmore on Barclay, the Windsor on Barclay, the Casa Del Vandt on Cardero, the Nicola Place on Nicola, the Carlton on Burnaby Street and the Bay Tower on Harwood Street.

Hollyburn declined further comment.

In 1992, the B.C. Human Rights Council ordered Hollyburn to pay $20,000 for wrongfully dismissing two building managers.

The company was founded by Stephen Sander, a refugee who fled India decades ago.

From humble beginnings in the 1960s, Sander built the Vancouver company into a 1990s powerhouse worth an estimated $170 million.

At that time, Hollyburn owned 23 residential apartment buildings.

Sander was born Sukhwant Singh in 1934 in a part of India that is now Pakistan.

He was taken to court by Revenue Canada in 1991 for allegedly understating his personal income by $1.1 million.

A judge later dismissed the charges, saying there was an unreasonable delay in the prosecution of the case.

Hollyburn’s current directors are Sander family members Paul Sander and Mark Sander.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Source – http://www.theprovince.com/Life/Vancouver+fight+starts+today/1182333/story.html