The financial and emotional stress of evicting tenants who are months behind on rent has made Patricia Celan an advocate for reforming Nova Scotia’s tenancy system to include an enforcement department.
The 29-year-old doctor says her story of trying to evict non-paying tenants began on June 15, five days after Angela Sutts and Wayne Provo’s damage deposit and rent checks bounced.
Celan, who is studying to become a psychiatrist, said Friday that she found herself even more in debt as the mortgage payments on her property mounted, adding that she put her school schedule behind schedule to focus on fixing the situation.
“I am on leave and hope to return to school as soon as I know for sure that (the tenants) have moved out,” he said.  “It’s hard to think of anything else.”
He says they fall on landlords and tenants in Nova Scotia when one of the parties allegedly fails to comply with the Residential Tenancies Act.  “I shouldn’t be here three months later looking for a sheriff to take them away,” she said in an interview last week.
Last Wednesday, Provo and Sutts failed to appear in small claims court to appeal their eviction — an appeal they had begun.  Judge Darrell Pink upheld their eviction and gave Shelan the option of asking a sheriff or a police officer to enforce it.  It was the end of a long process.
After rent inspections failed, Celan began eviction proceedings, which gave tenants 15 days to pay rent, move out or request a hearing.  When the tenants refused to pay, Celan had to seek a tenancy order requiring them to leave, which required a three-week wait.  When the eviction order came on July 26, it allowed the small claims court action, which Provo and Sutts started on August 5.
Neither Sutts nor Provo appeared in small claims court on Aug. 31, despite receiving notice of the date.
Reached the night of the small claims court decision, Sutts said she knew about the evening hearing but was working and couldn’t make it.  “It’s not worth my headache to argue with that woman (Celan). I’m leaving,” he said Thursday.
Asked for her views on whether fines should be imposed for willful non-compliance with tenancy laws, Sutts said it depends on the circumstances.  “Everybody has a situation and everybody has a story and there are two sides to a story,” she said, adding that her checks weren’t going through because she had other bills to pay at the time.
Celan now faces another hearing later this month to try to recover $5,100 in rent, and said she realizes that if she succeeds, it will be difficult to get the money.
“If these tenants don’t pay me anything for the back rent and they don’t pay anything for the damages, they won’t face any consequences,” he said, adding that using a bailiff will cost money and trying to pay wages can be difficult.
Carrie Low, a former tenant who won her rent hike appeal last year, said many tenants also see the need for an enforcement unit.
Low said in an interview last week that during her hearing, the housing rental officer presented written evidence that both she and a previous tenant were threatened with large rent increases if they insisted on moving to a month-to-month lease instead of an annual one. hire.  The owner involved did not respond to a request for comment.
Fines are needed as a deterrent to violations of the Residential Tenancies Act, Low said.  “If there is no recourse to something that was done illegally, then the behavior continues,” he said.
Mark Culligan, a community law officer with Dalhousie Legal Aid who represented Low at the hearing, said his group was in favor of creating an enforcement regime, but cautioned against penalizing tenants who struggle to pay rent.
“It is important not to equate willful non-payment of rent with poverty and the cost of living crisis,” he said.
Colton LeBlanc, Nova Scotia’s minister of service and internal services, said in an interview last week his department is analyzing enforcement mechanisms in other jurisdictions.  He said there is a “small minority” of landlords and tenants who don’t comply with the law and his department is “looking carefully at what a compliance and enforcement department would look like in Nova Scotia.”
However, when asked if the legislative reform would take place within the mandate of the Progressive Conservative government, the minister replied that no firm timetable has been set.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on September 3, 2022.