June 1st, 2013
Tenants thinking of using email to harass their landlords should think again
We thought we had heard all the issues BC landlords face before. And if we haven’t heard it in British Columbia, we thought it must have happened before in the rest of Canada.
This is a new one: email harassment.
According to a report in Straight.com, a B.C. Supreme Court ruling sends a very clear message for tenants who bombard their landlords with emails.
The tenant filed an application for a judicial review of a Residential Tenancy Branch decision ending their tenancy.
In February of 2012, one tenant put up an advertisement for a roommate to help pay the rent for the unit they were living in.
A potential tenant saw the ad, replied and paid two months of rent plus a security deposit. On April 19th, 2012 the first and this new roommate got into an argument.
The landlord is Commonwealth Holding Co. Ltd. They issued an eviction notice.
A Residential Tenancy Branch dispute-resolution officer upheld the order in part because the first tenant “had unreasonably disturbed the landlord with a large volume of emails”.
Also included as grounds were “Subletting the unit and interfering with other tenants’ enjoyment of the building.”
Justice Miriam Gropper dismissed the first tenants application for a judicial review of a Residential Tenancy Branch decision ending their tenancy.
In dismissing her appeal, Gropper wrote, “I find the DRO’s conclusion that the volume and tone of the tenants e-mails to the landlord constituted an unreasonable disturbance of the landlord reasonable.”
To discuss this and other landlord and tenant issues go the the British Columbia landlord forum
