Melanie Quigg has been fighting to get her $650 damage deposit back for more than a year. Despite a favourable decision from a Residential Tenancies Board adjudicator last month, she’s still waiting.
“I was thrilled and relieved to know I had won,” says Quigg. “But I’ve seen enough to know just because the ruling was in my favour, it doesn’t necessarily mean I will ever see the money.”
Neither the property manager nor the homeowner appealed that decision. But Quigg must now go through Small Claims Court to enforce it. She may even have to pay a sheriff to collect her own money.
The problem starts in a gray area of the Residential Tenancies Act. Section 12.5 states if there is no damage or unpaid rent, deposits must be returned 10 days after the tenant vacates. But Section 13.1 gives landlords â¨and tenants up to one year to claim disputed monies.
Service Nova Scotia communications advisor Lori Errington says the two sections are not contradictory because they apply to â¨different situations, so no change is being considered.
“The one-year time frame applies if there is a dispute over unpaid rent or damage to the unit. It is meant to allow time for the necessary processes to be completed before the landlord applies to keep some or all of the deposit,” Errington writes. “We realize that, unfortunately, some landlords do not follow these rules and this can be difficult and frustrating for tenants.”
No kidding. In Quigg’s case, David Kennedy of Top Flight Property Management did not respond to repeated messages left over four months requesting the deposit be returned. He managed the house Quigg rented from Emily Edwards, who was actively trying to sell it.
When reached by The Coast earlier this year, Kennedy said Quigg would have to apply to the Tenancies Board because she had broken her lease by leaving early.
A Tenancies Board adjudicator heard Quigg’s case on May 30. Quigg had email evidence of discussions with Edwards’ realtor who wanted her out on 30 days notice if the house sold. Quigg understood she had the same flexibility. Adjudicator Jason Warham ruled Quigg was entitled to her deposit because she had not broken her lease.
“The landlord cannot, on one hand, want to go outside the requirements of the Tenancy Act and then, on the other hand, hold the tenant to the strict terms of the Act and lease,” Warham wrote in his decision. “In addition, the landlord re-rented the unit and mitigated its losses.”
The decision from Residential Tenancies entitles Quigg to get her $650 back, but she faces a more daunting task to collect it.
Here’s how the process goes:
1. The renter asks the Tenancies Board Officer to direct the Small Claims Court to turn its decision into a court order.
2. The renter applies to Small Claims Court for an Execution Order a sheriff will â¨enforce.
3. The renter must register the court order ($35.75) at the Property to Land Registry office at 780 Windmill Road.
4. The renter must hire a sheriff to collect the debt ($99.70).
New Brunswick has a more efficient process where damage deposits are paid directly to a third party—the Office of the Rentalsman—and tenants apply online to retrieve it. Landlords have seven days to notify the Rentalsman if there is a dispute. If not, the Office sends out a cheque within three weeks. Hello, Nova Scotia?
Dalhousie Legal Aid community legal worker Megan Deveaux describes the collection process as “time-consuming and ridiculous.”
Deveaux says the sheriff will fail to collect unless the tenant knows where the landlord or property manager lives or the location of the bank branch where the damage deposit is supposed to be held in trust. (Service Nova Scotia doesn’t do random audits, so the money may or may not be there. If so, the sheriff can access it.)
The sheriff can also demand that the new tenant at Quigg’s old address hand over next month’s rent to cover Quigg’s loss.
“That’s bad for business,” says Deveaux, “plus it’s dumb on the part of property owners not to refund the deposit before it costs them a lot more once the sheriff arrives and they have to cover the fees the tenant paid upfront.”
In the case of Quigg’s former landlord, those costs would total $983.77 once the sheriff’s commission, property registry and other fees are included.
The Tenancies Board adjudicator asked property manager David Kennedy to provide the trust account address. Armed with that information, Deveaux predicts Quigg should be able to get back her $650—eventually.
“Things don’t change unless everybody pushes back,” says Quigg. “I also know everyone isn’t able to. I was lucky to have a retired father who made several attempts to serve the papers on the property manager. The whole system seems set up to discourage anyone from following through. There are just too many roadblocks.”
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This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2017.
When will you people learn?
Cancel your last cheque/payment, then meet the landlord face to face with cash for your last half a month’s rent and a letter for him/her to sign. No sign? No money, and I’ll see you in court!!! Landlords are lazy, they ain’t got time to chase a mafukka round for 600 bucks.
How ironic – I actually just heard back from my tenancy officer (same one mentioned in this post) that my hearing vs the same management company for the SAME amount of money has been postponed to August 16th…despite me trying since June 27th to serve him. What a bunch of crooked jerk!
1 tenant gets a big article,
thousands of tenants rip off landlords every year,
strangely that’s not news
David Kennedy did the exact same thing to me! He owed me $750 I filed a claim after repeated attempts to connect with him. My case was heard too late so unless I pursued it through small claims I was out of luck. He knows he can get away with not paying he should be investigated for fraud!
In general, it is a lot easier to collect money from a landlord than it is from a tenant. Landlords typically own their home and don’t move as much plus their employment is more likely to be at one location longer. Tenants are much more apt to change their place of residence and employment since the demographics are younger and have more entry-level positions. Landlord that are homeowners are much easy to find than tenants. There is no central registry for finding tenants like there is for property owners.
Some landlords give the rest of us a bad name, but most are good. There are a much higher percentage of bad tenants out their thanks to people like Meagan Deveaux and Dalhousie Legal Aid. Dal Legal Aid has published a book online that advises tenants how to not honour their lease in good faith and screw their landlord. It breaches good ethics through bad legal advice, shows no empathy or compassion, and fosters a negative experience for everyone involved in the rental industry. Shame on Dalhousie for allowing it to continue.
NB’s system of RentalsMan handling sec deposits must be an EXPENSIVE means of policing the system. More gov’t bureaucracy to handle a simple process. 10 days is not even enough time for a landlord during the summer months to complete all the work and determine the exact cost. Obtaining 3 quotes and scheduling the work with a good contractor can often take longer than 10 days. Landlords should have 1 month to return the sec dep. This would cut down on problems and seem more fair. If tenants were well-behaved, pleasant, and maintained a positive relationship with their landlord, they might get it back much faster. People/tenants too often feel the world owes them. This sense of entitlement is not healthy for any relationship.
Im a landlord and i pride myself on being a good one i have had many tenants and only 3 bad ones these same processes apply to us as well and it isnt right i have 3 tenants owing me 2000 each for damages they have done and rent they have skipped .i agree these processes arent fair at all on either part im good to my tenants and i would hang out with most of them n we respect eachother .but theres always the odd one who believes there is no concequeces to their actions there is 6000$ these people own me and while most landlords i know say let it go i say actions have concequences and bad tenants and bad landlords need to own up.i not only have to wait for my money i have to keep watch for when my extenants are working and where they live now .and they tell me i need to even know what bank they use ..like seriously ??? They paid cash or etransfer and banks wont tell you where an etrasfer comes from ..so being respectful to eachother is a must or we end up dealing with this aweful system which is very unfair.and more then often people weather tenant or landlord quit seeking retrobutions because of the time and effort it takes to get their money.i am determanded to continue and my reasoning is that if i dont these people will do this again to another landlord like me .so my advice is even if it costs you money continue to make your point that your landlord also cant misstreat you either.