B.C. landlord took too long to replace carpets after eviction, must pay tenants $36K: court

Rolls of carpet are seen in this file photo. (shutterstock.com)

A B.C. landlord who evicted his tenants so he and his son could move into their unit, then spent two-and-a-half months replacing the carpet before moving in, will have to pay the evicted tenants more than $36,000.

Harjinder Bhangal issued an eviction notice to Louis and Mary DeSousa on Dec. 31, 2021, according to a B.C. Supreme Court decision on the case issued last week.

The purpose of the eviction was to allow Bhangal and his son to move into the apartment, which is described in the decision as the “upper portion” of a house in Coquitlam.

Under B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act, a landlord can issue a notice to end tenancy if they or a “close family member” intend to occupy the unit.

The law requires the landlord to act in good faith, and to live in the home for a specified minimum period before renting it out again. At the time of the DeSousas’ eviction, that minimum period was six months.

The person moving into the property must also do so “within a reasonable period,” unless there are extenuating circumstances that prevent them from doing so.

If the landlord or their close family member doesn’t move into the property within a reasonable amount of time or doesn’t live there for the minimum period required, the landlord can be ordered to pay the evicted tenant an amount equal to 12 months of their former rent.

In this case, the DeSousas moved out on April 30, 2022. Rather than moving in right away, however, Bhangal replaced the carpet in the unit, a process that took until mid-July, according to the court decision.

It was only after the carpet replacement was finished that Bhangal and his son moved into the home.

The tenants took Bhangal to B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch, arguing that he had failed to complete the stated purpose of the eviction within a reasonable amount of time.

The RTB arbitrator who heard the case agreed, ordering Bhangal to pay the DeSousas $36,100, representing 12 months’ worth of their $3,000-a-month rent, plus the tenants’ $100 RTB filing fee.

The landlord took the case to the B.C. Supreme Court for judicial review, arguing that the arbitrator had disregarded relevant evidence and had given inadequate reasons for his decision.

Justice Sheila Tucker rejected Bhangal’s arguments, ruling that the RTB arbitrator had considered all the evidence and given adequate reasons.

The landlord told the court he had installed the carpet himself, and that he was busy with other work during the period when it was installed. He also blamed COVID-19-related restrictions and construction industry shortages for contributing to the delay.

While Bhangal argued that the RTB arbitrator had ignored or given insufficient weight to these considerations, Tucker found the arbitrator’s decision “rational, transparent and adequate.”

“It is plainly evident that the arbitrator considered a period of two and a half months – or some 75 days – to generally be too long to be explained by carpet replacement per se,” Tucker’s decision reads.

“Accordingly, the arbitrator reviewed the landlord’s evidence to see if difficulties in completing the carpet replacement had been established. He concluded that the landlord did assert that there had been difficulties, but found the evidence of those difficulties to be too vague and non-specific to explain the length of the move in period.”

The judge dismissed the landlord’s petition, allowing the RTB decision and its $36,100 award to the DeSousas to stand.