SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015
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Lombardy residents say landlord's agent using city order to bully tenants
Charelle EVELYN Citizen staff cevelyn@pgcitizen.ca
A group of residents in the Lombardy Mobile Home Park say they believe they are being unfairly targeted in a quest to clean up the controversial site.
Last week, about 30 eviction notices were handed out to residents throughout the Norwood Street park, which property manager Lucienne Hannah told The Citizen were for “just cause of not cleaning up their yards or removing vehicles or whatever it is the city is after us for.”
Last month, city council approved remedial action orders on the park, forcing the owner to take responsibility for putting things in order following years of back and forth with the city bylaw department.
None of the city’s recommendations involved evicting residents, said bylaw services manager Fred Crittenden.
“That’s a decision that obviously the park managers or owners have taken upon themselves,” he said.
Clashing with owners
The eviction notices give the recipients 30 days to leave, barring intervention from the Residential Tenancy Branch. Some Lombardy residents said the landlord’s agent Kal Sall is using the city’s clean-up order to bully out of their homes tenants who have clashed with the park’s owners in the past.
Michelle Macdonald said she had an eviction notice in her hands a mere two days after receiving a letter from the Residential Tenancy Branch confirming her victory in an arbitration matter against the park management after an eviction threat due to a late pad rent payment in May as well as fighting an improperly established rent increase.
The boxes checked off on the eviction notice Macdonald received on July 31 stated her tenancy had “seriously jeopardized the health or safety or lawful right of another occupant or the landlord” as well as “put the landlord’s property at significant risk,” with “unsightly yard” and “recreational vehicle” written by hand on the form.
A covered RV is parked in a fenced por-
We are tax-paying, law-abiding citizens and I want people of Prince George to know that.
— Kathy Mills
tion of Macdonald’s backyard and the front of the home features a small flower bed, two wooden benches and a few other lawn ornaments.
A treehouse, trampoline and patio furniture are also set up to the side of Macdonald’s unit, which she has shared with her husband and three children for the past six years.
Directly across from Macdonald’s home sits the charred remains from a May 13 fire that are still in the process of being removed.
“I think what (Sall’s) trying to do is he’s trying to take our homes because he’s trying to make up for what he’s lost, but he’s doing it improperly,” said Macdonald, who began meeting with other park residents about organizing once the eviction notices were passed out. While a good number of those she’s spoken with own their homes and only pay pad rent, there are others who she said rent their trailers and are afraid to speak up.
Evictions come after arbitration wins
Jason Stevenson was also the recipient of an eviction notice citing him for an unsightly yard.
In the little more than three years that Stevenson and his family have lived at Lombardy, he has gone to arbitration twice with the Residential Tenancy Branch over disputes with the park management - and won both times.
The first time was for not being paid for three month’s worth of maintenance work Stevenson said he did around Lombardy. Shortly after moving in, he said he offered his services as someone who worked in home renovation to the management - with a verbal agreement about payment - to help spruce up the park.
Kathy Mills was also handed an eviction
notice on July 31. On Aug. 6, she received her latest letter from the Residential Tenancy Branch confirming her July 27 arbitration victory in a dispute with the landlord over the use and possession of two lots.
It was the seventh time Mills said she has been to arbitration with Lombardy since 2009.
“The VLA is trying to clean up the criminal element in this community and that’s what a lot of homeowners and myself and a lot of people who are making noise and speaking up (are doing) because we’re sick and tired of this. We are tax-paying, law-abiding citizens and I want people of Prince George to know that,” said Mills. “I’m speaking up for elderly people that have paid rent here for over 25 years, raised their families. The property owner is the one who rents his property out (to those) who are less community or neighbour-like.” Mills was the subject of an RCMP call on July 31 after property management reported what appeared to be a weapon in a tenant’s hands after receiving an eviction notice.
The police said it was a replica pellet pistol, which Mills said was being used for target shooting in her backyard with a group of children at the time the landlord’s agent and property management came by to serve her with an eviction notice. No charges have been filed in connection with the incident.
Not on city's list
In addition to having previous run-ins with property management, Mills, Macdonald and Stevenson also have something else in common: their lots are not on the list of properties within Lombardy Mobile Home Park targeted for remedial action by the city.
There were a total of 32 properties specified for clean up - 16 of which required demolition of trailers - in the order approved by city council on July 8. At a July 27 meeting, where a reconsideration request
by park management was denied, about 23 lots were still not in compliance.
Ten-year park resident Angelique Levac said she hasn’t had any previous issues with park management and was surprised by the eviction notice she received. Her lot was also not on the remedial order list.
According to Crittenden, the remedial order didn’t limit action to only the lots specified in the report to council but that “there was a general clause in there to make sure all the waste and debris and things that would normally be disposed of, be disposed of or stored properly.”
Tenants who receive an eviction notice have 10 days to file a dispute with the Residential Tenancy Branch.
Filing that dispute comes with a $50 fee, which is hardship enough, said Levac.
While she owns her home and pays pad rent, there are some who are renting trailers she says are in poor condition who have less options than she does.
'A lot of people can't trust him now'
If those in charge of the park kept their word about promises to make improvements, they wouldn’t be in this situation, Levac said.
“A lot of people can’t trust him now and I’m one of those people that can’t trust him anymore,” she said, pointing to rent increases that she was told were going to help pay for things like paving the roads in the park.
“I come from a reserve. Some of the reserves are nicer than this,” said Levac.
Clean-up is ongoing at the park, and as long as it’s in the works, the city will allow them to continue, said Crittenden.
“If at any point it appears that they stop doing that or have not gone as far as we think they should have, at that point we have the ability to go in and take whatever remedial action is left to do,” he said.
When asked for comment, Sall would only say that he was cleaning up the park, as the city asked.
“The city told me to clean up my mess,
(the tenants) have to clean up theirs,” he said.
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