Ottawa lawyer says eviction plan for Little Italy apartment building sidesteps tenants’ rights

Tenants of a Little Italy building are facing eviction, and an Ottawa lawyer says the process is sidestepping their rights. CTV’s Katelyn Wilson reports.

An Ottawa lawyer says a proposed mass eviction at a Little Italy apart

ment building sidesteps the legal protections Ontario tenants are entitled to and is being brought before the wrong court.

Michael Thiele, who specializes in Ontario tenancy law, says the proposed plan for the Envie I apartment building on Champagne Avenue, should be heard by the Landlord and Tenant Board, not Superior Court.

“It’s an attempted bypass,” Thiele told CTV News Ottawa. “The Ontario Residential Tenancies Act provides tenants with a lot more protection than what is being contemplated here.”

“I would guess that the paramountcy argument is going to be that the Bankruptcy Insolvency Act takes precedence, we should therefore disregard the Residential Tenancies Act. That, I think, disregards the principles of paramountcy where there has to be a true conflict between the federal law, which is the Bankruptcy Insolvency Act, and the Ontario law, which is a provincial statute. There would have to be a real conflict there and I don’t think there is.”

The 185-unit high-rise is under the control of a court-appointed receiver, after its owner defaulted on more than $60 million in mortgage debt.

A court-appointed receiver is now asking a judge to terminate every lease, evict all tenants, and sell the building to a new buyer, all before Sept. 1.

The reason cited is mould. Testing found it in several units and common areas, and the receiver argues the building must be cleared for health and safety reasons.

• RELATED: Ottawa tenants told to leave mould infested building as court approval sought for ‘mass eviction’

“The landlord, in this case the receiver standing in the shoes of the landlord, would have to establish that vacant possession is necessary for the work that they assert is needed,” said Thiele. “Given the nature of this building, I don’t know that they would be able to establish that.”

In this case, Thiele says the tenants are being asked to give up their rights and leave voluntarily in exchange for two months rent as compensation.

But, under the law, he says they should be entitled to 120 days’ notice, the right to return at the same rent, and three months compensation.

“If you’re on the landlord side of this, just emptying out the building is far more convenient but that’s not fair and the tenants have real substantive rights that the province has given them,” he said.

Residents like Muhammad Hassaan, an international student from Abu Dhabi, say the situation has caused panic and confusion.

“The fact of the matter is it terrified me, and it terrified a lot of people,” said Hassaan. “It led to a sort of mass hysteria, essentially.”

He says he does have some mould in his unit but not enough to justify what’s happening.

“Everyone understands what the housing market is looking like right now. It’s not looking good for anyone,” said Hassaan.

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Thiele calls the case an uphill battle, but says if the judge approves the plan, tenants could still have grounds to appeal.

“[The tenants] are in a much stronger position than they perhaps realize,” he said. “They need to make the argument that the Landlord and Tenant Board is where they should be going, and to bypass the LTB or even to have that avenue foreclosed to them is not right.”

CTV News Ottawa reached out to the receiver and its lawyers for comment. The court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

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