In Canada, the house you buy may not really be able to live in!
Ayesha Asghar was forced to sell her home in Missile, after her abrupt dismissal last December, and then scraped together what little savings and severance she had to buy a two-story town home on Ellis Avenue in east Hamilton.
Asghar, 36, was one of the victims of a wave of layoffs that swept the tech industry last year. "I couldn't afford my mortgage after losing my job, and Hamilton was an opportunity to shrink my expenses, readjust and get to work."
However, her new town house has been occupied by tenants, and she originally planned to move on June 6, but she has now been forced to live in a car.
Source: thestar
She said the N12 eviction notice was issued more than 80 days before she took over the property. But the tenant refused to leave, not only did he not pay rent or utilities, but he also caused serious damage to the house, including leaving "piles and piles" of garbage in the front yard.
And she has to pay her mortgage all the time, and she is currently unemployed.
"It's so inhumane, I don't know how many panic attacks I've had lately."
Early Thursday afternoon, music can be heard around the corner of this townhouse, and the narrow front yard is stacked with everything from bicycles and office chairs to bed frames and loveseats.
Tenant Kimberly Sheffield has lived here for three years and says she has the right to continue living here as a tenant.
Sheffield said she never received an N12 eviction notice and said her rent was paid until April 1. She claimed that Asghar wanted to renovate the house to raise rents and find new tenants.
"I'm not going to move out just because she bought a house. I know my rights as a tenant. I don't think someone can drive someone out into the street by buying a house. ”
When asked if she knew that the person who bought the house was now homeless and living in her car, Sheffield said, "No, she's not. If she's like that, then at least she's better off than I am and can afford a car. ”
Sheffield mentioned the difficulty of finding a new home in Hamilton, an increasingly expensive housing market. But she did not say whether she had taken the time to look for other rental properties. She denied claims that the property was damaged.
Asghar said the tenants were so unreasonable that they had to ask a property management company to inspect the property. Upon inspection, it was found that the interior of the house was damaged to more than $17,000, and photos showed graffiti on most of the walls, missing window screens, a build-up of debris throughout the house, and soiled floors and stairs. Hamilton's fire department also asked Asghar to install new smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors during a June 12 inspection as they were removed.
Source: thestar
These are all questions that Asghar never thought it would face.
Since the sale of her house in Michi, Asghar has been commuting back and forth between Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area, doing some freelance work while sleeping in her car or on a friend's couch.
According to Aghar, when Asghar submitted an EOI to the town house on Ellis Avenue, the former homeowner agreed to issue an eviction notice to the tenant on March 12 as part of the sales agreement, as the buyer intended to move in. Asghar keeps a large number of records documenting all the efforts she makes.
Asghar said the seller's real estate agent told her that the tenant agreed to move out by May 31.
However, this did not happen.
"You've spent so much hard-earned money, playing by the rules, paying taxes, and working hard. When you finally have your own home, and you're told, 'No, that's terrible, it's a shame,'" she said. "And the only remedy is to wait for a hearing in two months."
How can this happen?
The answer to this question is complex.
Ontario law allows a landlord to evict a tenant on behalf of a buyer, as long as the buyer or a family member intends to live in the premises.
Andrew Choubeta, a paralegal at Hamilton's Caveat LLP firm who specializes in landlord-tenant issues, noted, "Tenants don't have to leave, and tenants can push the matter to an arbitration hearing. ”
There are usually two reasons for filing an appeal against deportation.
One scenario is done in bad faith, although this is now rarer due to the high fines that landlords may face.
"The tenant knows that the buyer is not actually going to move in, but is going to rent out the property." Choubeta said.
Another reason is that tenants can't find a home on a budget in the rental market. "Personally, I don't know anyone who can move out of a property within 60 days. It's very difficult. ”
Asghar says she understands the sentiment. "I know how hard it is to find a house," she said. "What if these tenants tell me on the handover date, 'We know you're moving in, but can you give us another month to find a house?' I can understand that. But these people are completely refusing to leave. ”
Kayla Andrade, president of Ontario Landlord Watch, said LTB's checks and balances became an issue when tenants began to abuse the system. "Even though [Asghar] has an upcoming hearing, tenants have a lot of loopholes that could extend the process indefinitely," said Andrade, who has supported landlords and tenants in disputes for more than a decade.
Indeed, it can take months from the time the eviction notice is issued to the hearing is held – and even longer if the hearing is postponed or the tenant files more appeals.
The ordeal has forced many Ontario landlords to exit the local real estate market altogether, and they could be stuck for months as tenants don't pay their rent and need to pay their mortgages, Andrade said, while LTB struggles with a backlog of applications. "You can look at housing costs and interest rates as an issue, but the reason they're leaving is the lack of protection for them from landlord and tenant councils," Andrade said, adding that disputes like Aghar are becoming more common. She mentioned that last year there was a Hamilton couple who bought a house, but after the tenants refused to move out, they parked their RV in the driveway in protest.
"Why do we have (LTB) to process applications that don't need to be heard by an arbitrator? We have a lot of more important issues to deal with (LTB). ”
Paralegal Choubeta added that LTB was moving too slowly in processing eviction applications. He thinks most people won't have a problem with the committee's biased policies in favor of tenants — such as tenants' right to appeal evictions — "if you can go to court in two to three weeks, not two to three months." ”
In a statement, LTB attributed the delay in the hearing to the volume and complexity of the case. While LTB resolved approximately 83,000 cases in 2023, a 45% increase from 2022, the backlog remains significant due to the staggering 84,000 new applications filed last year.
Nonetheless, Spada mentioned that LTB has adopted a number of strategies to reduce the backlog, including introducing new technology and hiring more staff and referees. The committee expects to schedule more than 100,000 hearings by the end of the year, the highest number in its history.
Although LTB does not have data on wait times for eviction notice hearings, she said "urgent matter hearings" now take place in an average of five to six weeks, compared to eight weeks or more in early 2023.
For Aghar, who is in discussions with her lawyer to expedite the LTB application, the wait is the hardest part. It gave her too much time to think about how things should have been different.
"I was really scared because I didn't have the resources to deal with other people, and honestly, I didn't want to do that," she said. "I just want to live in my own home. That's it. I don't want to be a landlord. ”