A photo of a tiny home from the company's website.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Your Tiny Homes
October 16, 2024 - 7:00 PM
The BC owners of a tiny home company have been barred from taking any more legal action after they made multiple court filings in an effort to avoid paying an elderly client they previously ripped off.
According to an Oct. 10 BC Supreme Court decision, Shawn Glen Cameron and Michelle Lynn Cameron, who goes by the name Michelle Ordowski, "continually" misrepresented facts to court and went to "great lengths" to avoid a court-ordered property sale.
The story dates back to 2019 when senior Debbie McHugh paid Cameron and Ordowski's company, Your Tiny Homes, to build a tiny home for her.
However, the couple took the senior's money but never delivered the tiny home.
McHugh successfully sued the couple over the matter with the judge saying Cameron and Ordowski had "repeatedly and intentionally lied" about the progress of the tiny home calling it "constructive fraud" and "gross negligence."
The court ordered Cameron and Ordowski to pay McHugh $58,381 plus $24,000 in punitive and aggravated damages.
However, the couple failed to pay up and McHugh was forced to go back to court and get an order forcing the couple to sell their property in the small Thompson community of Vanvenby north of Kamloops, and pay McHugh.
According to BC Assessment, the two-acre property has a trailer on it and is valued at $147,000.
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Since McHugh obtained the court order, Cameron and Ordowski have filed multiple applications to the court.
"Ms. Ordowski and Mr. Cameron failed entirely to provide full and proper disclosure to the court and, in fact, have misled the court on a number of key issues," Justice Tina Dion said in the decision.
The couple also refused McHugh's realtor onto the site so they could appraise it.
Ordowski and Cameron then filed complaints with the realtor's regulator in an attempt to prevent the realtor from accessing the property.
A complaint was also made against McHugh's lawyer to the BC Law Society.
Justice Dion said that if the couple had fully disclosed the correct information with their court filing they would have failed.
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"They have shown that they will go to great lengths to seek to frustrate orders of this court," the judge said.
"(McHugh) was made homeless by the conduct of the (Ordowski and Cameron), and (their) repeated filing of court documents to improperly delay the... lawful enforcement of the Judgement continues to cause extreme prejudice... and has the sole purpose of improperly ensnaring counsel and the plaintiff," the Justice said. "They have shown that they will go to great lengths to seek to frustrate orders of this court."
The Justice goes on to call the couple's behaviour "outrageous."
"They refuse to accept judicial criticism of them and to comply with orders of the court, while continually misrepresenting the facts to the court. They act habitually and persistently in the face of judicial direction," the justice said.
The justice declared the couple vexatious litigants, barring them from any more court action without permission.
Ordowski and Cameron were ordered to pay costs and allow the realtor onto the property so it can be sold.
It also appears the couple's legal issues are far from over as court records show they are involved in at least half a dozen other court cases.
It's unclear what happened to the business as Your Tiny Homes website no longer exists and its social media hasn't been updated in more than four years.
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