Maple Ridge landlord avoids $22,000 penalty after B.C. Supreme Court ruling

A Maple Ridge landlord no longer has to pay a $22,000 penalty after a B.C. Supreme Court ruling said the Residential Tenancy Branch made a decision that was “irrational and so flawed” in favour of their former tenant it needed to be struck down.

Thi Quynh Van Le was taken to the RTB by tenant Lisa Card after being issued a two-month notice of eviction because the landlord wanted to have family move into the rental unit.

Card issued a notice of dispute, saying the landlord failed to occupy the unit. The RTB found in favour of Card, and ordered compensation of $22,800, equal to 12 months of rent.

Le then challenged that ruling all the way up to the B.C. Supreme Court.

Justice W.A. Baker wrote in the ruling that a major problem in the case was a language barrier faced by the Le family, a mother and daughter. Both were represented by a neighbour at the RTB hearing.

Another issue is that the mother is the true owner of the property, but the daughter was listed on the title because the mother has a poor command of English.

The RTB was told that the mother and daughter lived upstairs at the rental property, but wanted to live separately in the house, which meant issuing the eviction notice. The RTB was told the daughter had moved into the rental suite.

The RTB adjudicator appeared to have trouble discerning who was the daughter and who was the mother due to the language barrier and the hearing being held over the phone.

The RTB then ruled in favour of the tenant, despite being told a family member had moved into the unit.

Judge Baker said that was a mistake by the RTB as the tenant offered up no evidence to conflict with what the landlords said.

“I find that the reasons of (the arbitrator) for finding that the landlord or the landlord’s child did not move into the rental unit cannot be supported on the evidence,” said the ruling. “This finding is completely untethered from the actual evidence in the hearing.”