Canadians:

*Worried that you won't be able to ever afford a first-time home in this runaway market?

*Saddened that you've been saving but don't have the buying power to compete?

*Fearful that your children will need to move out of their community or may not ever own a home in their lifetime?

*Frustrated that housing can become so inflated for houses that are well over what they are worth?

*Trying to start a family but can't because you can't move or expand your space to accommodate a family?

*Concerned about the economical and classist discrimination in the housing market, where only people with incomes more reflective of the 1% can afford to buy land or houses?

*Confused about our government's lack of priority about housing as a fundamental human right?

*Seen affirmative action housing for women but the income threshold is $40,000 (more than a lot of women or even the majority of people in Canada make)?

*Disgusted that local wages for full-time work are not enough to secure housing in your town?

*Wondering how a stress test can require three times your income, an income based on a fluctuating market that is out of your control (i.e., based on inflation, pandemic health orders)?

*New to Canada and wondering how or if you're going to get into the housing market?

*Appalled that we can have a housing shortage or crisis in the nation of lumber, land, and labour?

*Curious how rising costs of materials are forcing the market to be unaffordable in a world where prices and inflation are socially constructed and, therefore, changeable?

Renters:

*Worried that you will be a renter for life?

*Tired of housing insecurity because you are unprotected or less protected as a renter?

*Unable to live an adult life of your own, without pressures from others, due to lack of space or privacy?

*Ever wonder why tenants who live on the same property as the landlord seem to have less rights than other tenants, according to the Tenancy Bureau's decisions in past cases?

*Angry because you have had to move for the landlord's not complying with the Tenancy Bureau? (**Especially when landlords live at the same residence address as the tenant)

*Ever been wrongfully kicked out due to procedural unfairness that favoured the landlord in the dispute process with the Tenancy Bureau?

*Ever been unprotected/discriminated against because of the Tenancy Bureau?

*Ever been turned down for housing due to your ethnicity or other personal traits deemed unlawful to judge in the decision process?

*Been renovicted?

*Lose your place because bylaw was made aware and your landlords were not allowed to have rentals?

*Wondering why arbitrary prices can be made?

*Angry that new builders are putting subjectively defined so-called luxury characteristics in homes, while driving up costs at your expense? 

*Ever been made homeless due to the Tenancy Bureau?

*Wonder how your city allows for illegal suites at the expense of tenant rights under the guise of allegedly combatting homelessness? Do you see how that statement contradicts the prices of studios and one-bedroom residences?

*Ever been left unprotected by the Tenancy Bureau, by-law, RCMP, and other tribunals?

*Is your physical or mental health at risk because of your housing (i.e., lack of noise barriers, lack of protection, lack of stoves/ovens)?

*Noticed that the Tenancy Bureau's have closed their legal jurisdiction to helping professions (bylaw, police, lawyers) so that they are not able to respond to any of your tenant needs when are in need of protection? 

*Scared and stuck in a rental where you are being abused by your landlord's noncompliance with zero protection before your court date or after?

*Noticed there are no pro bono lawyers for rental, housing law?

*Wonder if or who the ethics board is overseeing the Tenancy Bureau's authority?

*Been extorted into living with roommates because the housing market is too unaffordable despite your full-time wage?

*Single parent forced to cohabitate with strangers because your finances cannot afford the market?

 

 

                                         canadaclassaction@outlook.com

       **HELP END HOUSING INSECURITY IN CANADA TODAY!**

 

I will do the work. I will stand before the courts on your behalf. I just need you behind me and I need your evidence to submit alongside mine. email: canadaclassaction@outlook.com with your info and evidence to sign up. Sign the petition below to send a strong message that Canadians will not be treated poorly for being tenants and we want stronger protections and a larger foothold in the housing market! Housing is a fundamental human right. Let's remind them of that. 

I am recruiting Canadian citizens far and wide for a Federal class-action lawsuit that will fight for:

(a) the fundamental human right to secure housing,

(b) for the re-expansion of law jurisdictions (police/bylaw) back into the rental world,

(c) for the creation of an ethics board to oversee the Ministry of Housing and the Tenancy Bureaus,

(d) for the creation of policies that protect the affordability of housing/rentals,

(e) for landlord applications that ensure that landlords are aware of their roles as landlords (especially for landlords who live on the rental property),

(f) for tenants who live in suites on the same property to have the same rights as other tenants,

(g) for free or affordable representation in order to make discrimination claims against any procedural unfairness that occurs in tribunals controlled by the Residential Tenancy Bureau when they chose not to abide by their own Rules of Procedures.

 

 

YOU: Send me all of your data to help the case and sign your names up through email to be part of the class action. Even if you don't want to be a part of the class action or can't because you don't have the material proof required for evidence, please consider signing below to send a strong message of consensus. Email: canadaclassaction@outlook.com

 

ME: I will organize all of your data, I will find us some lawyers who are fighting for Canadian and human rights, and we will go Supreme if we have to. 

Let's change this trajectory and ensure this history is not our future. Let's do this together because it won't change on its own or without resistance.

About me & my rental horror stories: 

Hello, my name is C. I am a 34-year-old Graduate student. I have been at the University in Kelowna since 2015. In the last 6 years, I have been evicted from two rental suites despite being a law-abiding, rent-paying, quiet, and respectful tenant.

 

Renoviction & Discrimination from BC Residential Tenancy Bureau: I was first evicted several years ago when a couple from Alberta bought my Kelowna, B.C. house that contained my suite. They chose to inherit my $900 basement rental in the sale; they moved into the upstairs. I had been living in this suite for three years, with zero problems, at the time of their purchase. The year was particularly important because it was the beginning of massive reno-evictions that are still plaguing Kelowna - people were/are being wrongfully evicted for the landlord to turn around and rerent the suite at a way higher amount and without offering the tenant the first choice to stay. The RTB was aware and had created a so-called "task-force" to deal with it. 

Once the couple moved in, they put pressure on me to try to get me to willfully leave my suite. My "willfully leaving" was the only way for the landlords to lawfully rerent my suite at a higher rate and to avoid being charged with retaliatory and discriminatory eviction by me. The only options they had were to: (a) have me move on my own volition and rerent the next day, (b) to have their mother/father move into the suite and not rerent for 6 months, (c) or to deactivate the suite and not rent it at all. They began making persistent, ongoing, and disruptive banging on the floor. They installed a wading pool above my front door which they would overfill with the hose for hours every day down onto my entry like a waterfall. They ignored Kelowna City Bylaw that states I have 30 square meters of private space; they held parties with their friends in this space - I have a picture of their belongings and speaker butted up to my living room window and front door. I have pictures of the male landlord spending time hanging out in this area as well. They began reducing my internet and TV access (something that had been a part of my rent for 3 years; something I depended on for university). I began documenting all of the ways the landlords were trying to strain the relationship and I began mediation with them. I wrote the landlords a letter alongside a copy of the Residential Tenancy Act that shows that privacy, quiet enjoyment, and reduction of services are supposed to be protectable things and asking them to cease their RTA contraventions (unlawful behaviours). I initiated mediation in Nov 2017, instead of filing directly with the Tenancy Bureau, because the Tenancy Officers I spoke to when I called in told me that mediation is preferred to arbitration. It is the first step in the litigation process, they said. What they actually did by deferring my application for arbitration was: (a) left space for the landlords to keep behaving unlawfully, (b) left me unprotected from their attacks and surveillance - there is zero protection from bylaw and police for tenant issues that involve one address (and not neighbouring addresses), and (c) left space for the landlords to apply for eviction.

When the landlords did not cease and, instead, intensified their behaviours, I wrote them to inform them I was applying for arbitration. That very night the landlords snuck up to me at 10pm when I got home from work and they forced the eviction notice into my hand. This is considered an invalid method of delivery according to the Tenancy Bureau's standards. The eviction stated one reason (2 months to end, mom moving in) which differed from their later claim in court ("We don't want to be landlords anymore" aka "Don't want to be landlords to me" = discrimination). I tried to prove that their claim of not wanting to be landlords was a bold lie. I showed in court the voice message of the local bylaw stating that two days after I moved, they applied to legalize the suite with the city - you wouldn't need to do that for mom or for giving up landlordship. I had plenty of evidence against the good faith of the landlords, but the tenancy bureau let them evict me because "the relationship was toxic" (despite the fact that the landlords had made it toxic for themselves and for me) and "they filed first". There was zero compensation for me - I was not helped with moving costs and my plea/evidence that I would be homeless because the city of Kelowna had a zero rental vacancy rate. The arbitrator literally said "oh well". 

I was literally evicted as a way for the landlords to escape mediation. I was evicted because the landlords filed for eviction before I filed for arbitration and I was made homeless for the last 6 weeks of my double bachelor undergrad degrees. Literally the worst moment of my life; it had the potential to ruin me, my academics, and my future. This kind of stress and pressure would do in the strongest of the strong. I cringe to think of how many people sink into depression, drugs, poor coping skills, chronic stress, or street life because of this. 

I applied for my case to be reheard. I was denied five more times. I was denied because I tagged it onto a case for getting my damage deposit back and the court "didn't have time" to hear the second half of the case. The Rules of Procedures clearly say that an arbitrator can hear the case to the end if they wish - the hour timeline diminishes the justice process and this can be modified according to the ROP. I was not given any compensation for the wrongful withholding of the damage, for the clear retaliation of claims of damage that they could not prove, for them submitting blurry/unlabelled evidence, for a zoomed in picture of my livingroom window that clearly defied my privacy, for the installation of video cameras filming my entrance two days before court and until the end of my tenancy, and slander for the letters they convinced people to write on their behalf about the amount of damage done. They claimed they had to spend months renovating (which means mom didn't move in and that it wasn't a rush for me to move) and that it was my fault they had to do those renovations. The arbitrator did order they pay me back my damage deposit, but still ruled in favour of them by ordering me to pay a $50 cleaning fee (for not moving the stove and fridge) despite the fact that they stated they extensively renovated and, thus, did not clean until after their own teardowns and installations. The landlord didn't send me my damage deposit for months after the order and the zero interest rate means I didn't get compensated for them choosing to act out of line.

The last two times the landlords pretended they did not get the evidence package but they were able to show up to court (the evidence stick and court dates were in the same package and they had now been delivered the same package 4 times already) and most recently they didn't pick up the evidence at all from Canada Post and didn't show up to court. All of these are against the Rules of Procedures of the Tenancy Bureau and how they have failed me and why I do not trust them to protect my security. I am trying to financially recover to apply for a SIXTH time almost 3 years later. The arbitrator literally told me she couldn't go forth with the case without them because what if they didn't see the evidence. She said if the package was pictures, and not audio/video, then it would have been for sure considered delivered. I asked her how you take pictures of noises? I asked her what happens when I reapply and this happens again and I am denied again for the same reason because the evidence isn't going to change? I asked her why this wasn't seen as purposeful retaliation and avoidance when they were told to expect the package by the last arbitrator? I asked her why the Rules of Procedure that states that evidence sent by registered mail is considered delivered after three days from the postmark regardless of whether it is picked up or not didn't apply here? She had zero answers for me and told me I was rude.

Landlord's noncompliance with bylaw (not allowed rentals) and landlord abuse (i.e., screaming at me and guests, I kid you not): It is now 2021. I am evicted and homeless for the same reasons in addition to new ones: (a) hot water that is between 11 Celcius - 25 Celcius, literally dangerous at prolonged exposures, not sanitary during COVID times, (b) touching my boyfriends truck and leaving him threatening notes to tow him, (c) sneaking into my laundry room and touching my clothes/manipulating the washer/dryer, (d) screaming at me and my boyfriend, (e) installing a bouncy castle inside, (f) constantly coming to my door unannounced. Literally chaos and fully unprotected. There is nothing that bylaw or police can do. I would know because I had bylaw come to this second place. The bylaw notified me that the three suites the landlords had were not allowed and had to be deactivated with an order of eviction to us tenants. I am homeless, once again, as a Graduate student living in a zero vacancy (not affordable) housing market for a single person. I, as a single 33-year-old adult woman with a full-time job, cannot afford a one-bedroom anymore with my max budget of 1100$. I am either forced to live with strangers or pay a price that will drive me to bankruptcy. 

I do not trust the Tenancy Bureau to protect me physically, mentally, or socially. I have applied for them to make sure they included important missing information to the case in the transcript - they said no. The arbitrators are able to manipulate information when they fail to add in everything that was discussed. This also makes decisions more subjective than punitive measures to ensure justice. 

I know for sure that I am not the only one having this problem. I am concerned for people who are becoming homeless for speaking up or going without their protected rights in fear of speaking up. There is zero protection, no probono legal aid, no lawyers who can act on your behalf in the RTB tribunals. Somehow, the jurisdiction has been closed for only the RTB to control. That is not ok. Therefore, this must be moved into the realm of civil or supreme law. I am willing to be the one who stands at the front to speak on behalf of your voices if you sign and/or bring forth tangible material (video, audio, pictures) evidence of the same happening to you.

We live in this weird housing climate where young Canadians are not able to afford to put aside savings for a future down payment on a house because they are paying rent that is two to three times the rate of a mortgage. These same Canadians will watch their dreams move further away as they save for the (now) $75,000 down payment which will grow exponentially more as the overbidding of housing continues. In addition to all of this, our market currently expects one to pass a stress test of three times your wage (based on a fluctuating economy that is literally out of your control).