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Prince Rupert tenant advocate wins against landlord evicting him

“I had to win … With 1 % vacancy rate, there was no plan B,” Paul Lagace said
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Paul Lagace, Prince Rupert tenant advocate who faced having to move out of the city and leave his job, fought and won his own eviction on Jan. 28. to remain in his rental unit. (Photo: K-J Millar/The Northern View)

A Prince Rupert tenant rights advocate who was being evicted from his rental home has won the right to remain, after the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) determined the landlord’s evidence was not consistent with his testimony.

Concerns ran high during the five-month-long ordeal for Paul Lagace, who is the housing advocate at the Prince Rupert Unemployed Action Centre, over fears that he would have to leave the city and his job if suitable alternative housing could not be found.

The RTB hearing on Jan. 28 between Lagace and his landlord, Anoop Bhatti, was prompted by a 60-day notice to vacate last September. The reasons cited the upper floor one-bedroom apartment unit in a mixed commercial/residential downtown building was needed for the landlord’s family.

Lagace chose to fight the eviction notice posted on his door despite the risk of losing and having only two days to vacate if the decision went against him.

“Fighting anything does have its risks,” he told The Northern View on Feb. 9. “I had to win. It’s important to show that you can stand up and win if you are in the right.”

Since the landlord-tenant laws were amended last July to tighten up renoviction enforcement, some landlords are telling tenants the rental unit is intended for an immediate family member. This is an attempt to circumvent the necessity to provide proof of renovations such as building and construction permits to circumvent obtaining RTB permission before issuing an eviction notice, he said.

“You are going to see more and more landlords using these 60-day notices to avoid the proper process,” he said.

In the written order, RTB arbitrator Richard Maddia cited the landlord’s testimony was not consistent with the evidence he supplied to support his arguments that the unit was needed for his elderly parents.

The landlord provided verbal evidence that he had other rental properties, specifically mentioned a duplex. He had issued both units a 60-day notice stating his family was moving in, so the tenants moved out. However, the family did not move in.

“As a result, I find the landlord has already shown a propensity to disregard the provision of the Act that require the landlord to follow through with their intended purpose for ending a tenancy for personal use. I am not convinced that the landlord will not do the same in these circumstances,” Maddia stated.

Speaking after the personal experience just “hung over him”, Lagace said he now has an increased empathy for what his clients go through as it was the most stressful few months of his life.

“With a less than one per cent housing vacancy rate in the city I really didn’t have a plan B — because there wasn’t one. There is nothing available. There is nothing affordable. I would have joined the couch surfers,” he said.

“This is the reality of what people in B.C. and the Northwest face every day,” he said, “Nobody is safe it can happen to anyone, anywhere, any time. Nobody is exempt.”

The Northern View reached out to Bhatti. However, he declined to comment.

READ MORE: Prince Rupert tenant rights advocate faces eviction — may need to leave job and city

READ MORE: New renoviction processes will protect tenants