A dispute involving tenants, a landlord, and the property management company overseeing their West Vancouver house made it all the way to the BC Supreme Court this month.
The tale is complex and litigious. It involves the overseas landlord evicting the couple while the wife was pregnant and failing to move in. Additionally, the tenants are trying to get reimbursed for the $15,000 cost of replacing the home’s heating system.
Also, the property management company is trying to fight the Residential Tenancy Branch for deciding it was on the hook to pay the tenants instead of the home’s actual owner — even though the property management company listed itself as the landlord in the tenancy agreement.
The issue came before BC Supreme Court judge Maegen Giltrow when the property management company, Coldwell Banker Prestige Realty, asked her to overturn the RTB’s order to pay the former tenants nearly $120,000. The RTB ordered it to pay the couple 12 months’ rent because nobody moved into the West Vancouver home after they were evicted.
Instead, the home was listed for sale.
RTB orders property management company to pay former tenants $150,000
The total amount owed to the tenants totalled nearly $150,000. On top of the 12 months’ rent, they were owed back their damage deposit, pet deposit, expenses for emergency heating repairs, and filing fee.
The property management company tried to shift responsibility to the homeowner; however, during the judicial review, both the RTB and the Supreme Court judge found the company operated as the landlord for the purpose of the case.
“Coldwell Banker provided a service to the owner by contract, to enter directly into a tenancy, provide the sole and only contact as landlord to the tenants throughout that tenancy, and to terminate that tenancy under the provisions of the RTA,” Giltrow wrote. “Coldwell Banker was remunerated for that service by the Owner.”
She added Coldwell Banker and the owner would need to determine their liability between themselves in a private law matter — not in an RTB hearing involving the former tenants.
In the end, the judge threw out the property management company’s attempt to overturn the RTB’s decision. It’s still on the hook to pay the tenants nearly $150,000.