Vernon landlords ordered to pay tenants $17,500 lose appeal
A Vernon landlord, ordered to pay their previous tenants $17,500 because their mother didn't move into the rental for nine months after the tenants left, has lost an appeal.
According to a May 2 BC Supreme Court decision, landlords Duc Lu and Phuong Trinh argued the Residential Tenancy Branch had failed to consider "extenuating circumstances" which delayed their mother moving into the rental.
However, BC Supreme Court Justice Steven Wilson dismissed the appeal saying the landlords hadn't proved "extenuating circumstances" and the Residential Tenancy Branch's ruling that the mother didn't move in within a "reasonable time" was valid.
The decision said tenants Lori Anne Marchand and Brandon McNaueal moved into a rental property Lu and Trinh owned in 2017, paying $1,350 a month in rent.
Five years later, in the summer of 2022, the landlords gave the tenants notice, with the plan that one of their mothers would move in.
In BC, landlords can evict tenants so a close family member can move in, but if the family member doesn't move in the Residential Tenancy Branch could order the landlords to pay up to a year's worth of rent to the old tenants.
After the tenants left, the landlord's mom didn't move in for nine months. Marchand and McNaueal took action and won at the Residential Tenancy Branch which ordered the landlords to pay them $17,500.
Lu and Trinh appealed the ruling with the Tenancy Branch but lost, so took the case to the BC Supreme Court.
They argued the Residential Tenancy Branch had made numerous errors in accessing their case.
The landlords said former tenants had left the home in a bad way and they'd had to spend $140,000 renovating the rental home.
However, the Justice wasn't convinced by photographs the landlords submitted to the court as evidence.
"Although they display a general sense of disrepair and uncleanliness at the Rental Home, I note that it is difficult to draw any specific conclusions with respect to the damage done to the Rental Home due to the quality of the photographs," Justice Wilson said.
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The Justice also said that quotes for work to be done came to no more than $10,000, not the $140,000 they claimed.
"The Landlords did not submit quotes, invoices, receipts, or otherwise, to show what renovations were done," the Justice said.
The landlord also argued, that the mother had various medical appointments and needed to stay in Vancouver, where she had care and had a Vietnamese-speaking doctor.
However, the Justice said it was noteworthy that the mother had attended medical appointments from Vernon via teleconference and they had provided no further evidence that the mom needed to stay in Vancouver for her medical appointments.
The landlords made several legal arguments about how the Residential Tenancy Branch had failed to consider and misapprehend evidence, but the Justice wasn't swayed.
"This is not a case where the (Residential Tenancy Branch) failed to appreciate the Landlords’ evidence or misapprehended that evidence. Rather, the (Residential Tenancy Branch) did not accept the Landlords’ evidence and arguments," the Justice said.
The Supreme Court found there were no "extenuating circumstances" as to why it took nine months for the mom to move in and dismissed the case.
The landlords are now left having to pay their former tenants $17,500, plus their lawyer and court costs.
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