'A big step for tenants' rights': small claims court awards renovicted tenant over $13K

A Halifax small claims court has upheld a $13,662.15 award to tenant Brandy McGuire, ruling that her landlord violated the province's renoviction legislation.

The appeal ruling follows a year of McGuire going head-to-head with a Halifax developer.

But McGuire doesn't just see this as a victory for herself. 

"This is a big step for tenants' rights," she said in an interview Wednesday. "And that was one of the main important things for me, was standing up for tenants and their rights."

Katie Brousseau, McGuire's legal counsel, said this decision sets a precedent in Nova Scotia. 

"It is certainly amongst the largest awards and amongst the very few, if only, decisions interpreting the renoviction provisions," said Brousseau, a community legal worker with Dalhousie Legal Aid Service.

McGuire, her partner, and her children were living at the Bluenose Inn and Suites on the Bedford Highway last year when the owners sent out a letter telling all tenants they had 60 days to leave. More than 20 people lived there on a monthly basis, and were told the building was beyond repair and the property would be "retired".

This didn't sit right with McGuire. She knew about the province's renoviction legislation, and took the matter to a residential tenancies hearing. 

In March 2021, the ban on renovictions — the act of evicting tenants to renovate a building and then increase the rent charged to new tenants — was lifted when the province's state of emergency ended. However, new protections for tenants were added to the Residential Tenancies Act. 

The protections include that the tenant must be given at least three months notice and the landlord must give the tenant between one and three months rent as compensation, depending on the size of the building. Additional compensation may be awarded to the tenant if the landlord does not follow the new rules or is found to have acted in bad faith.

The residential tenancies hearing ruled in McGuire's favour, but her landlord, John Ghosn appealed the decision and the matter went to small claims court. 

Ghosn argued that it wasn't a renoviction because his company, Enqore Developments Ltd., didn't have imminent plans to redevelop the property. 

Months went by, and last week McGuire received news that the decision was being upheld by the small claims court. The adjudicator ruled that though it wasn't a renoviction in the colloquial sense of the term, it does fall under the province's renoviction legislation.

The decision noted that the long-term plan for the property is to demolish the existing buildings and redevelop the site into a "modern mixed-use project" which has been showcased on Enqore Developments' website.

It said in 2017, Enqore Developments signed a development agreement with the City of Halifax to allow them to proceed with their plans. In 2022, Ghosn applied for an extension of the development agreement, and now has until 2027 to start the project. 

"So does it make any difference that this landlord may choose to leave the building empty for a period of time before demolishing it? I am of the view that this does not change anything," adjudicator Eric Slone wrote in his decision. 

Landlord response

CBC News spoke to Ghosn, who passed the interview to a representative for Enqore Developments. The representative said the property had been operating at a loss.

"We were transparent with the tenants that the building was in disrepair and they would have to make other arrangements," the spokesperson said. "And while we are empathetic to the state of the affordable housing market, it is a business at the end of the day that we're running and at a certain point we had to make a decision to close our doors."

He said Enqore Developments feels the decision was too harsh.

"It just feels like ... we got the rule book of a renoviction thrown at us," he said. "And if the government wants to subsidize housing or displacements or what have you ... that's up to the government and their prerogative, but at the end of the day it feels like they're trying to pass on the financial onus of the housing subsidy or affordable housing onto landlords through policy."

The damages Slone awarded to McGuire include payment for three months of rent at The Bluenose and some of the difference between her old and new rent. 

McGuire says the money will help her family have a safety net as she finished her studies this year at Nova Scotia Community College and looks for work. But that's not why she spoke up. 

"It's not about the money for me," she said. "Like the money is great, my kids could definitely use it, I want to give them the world like any other mother. But I don't want this for my kids, if they end up moving out and renting somewhere, I don't want them to have to fight. I want to do that fight for them now."

Appeal possible

Ghosn has 30 days to appeal the small claims court decision. Brousseau said she doesn't know what will happen next, but she hopes this case sends a message. 

"What I hope this decision does is make it very clear to landlords and property owners in the province that when they don't comply with the act that there are penalties and there are consequences."