Court rules in favour of leaseholders on reserve

Dozens of residents who have been leasing property on the Musqueam reserve in Vancouver are breathing a sigh of relief after a judge accepted their court challenge to a massive increase in their rents.

In 2015, the band issued notices to 74 leaseholders in Musqueam Park of a rent increase to an average of $80,000 per year from the $10,000 average annual rent they’d been paying since 1995.

A total of 69 of the residents who live in the southwest Vancouver neighbourhood joined forces and went to the Federal Court of Canada to fight the increases, which they argued were not fair.

In a recent ruling, Justice Anne Mactavish accepted the evidence of the experts from the plaintiff leaseholders as to what the fair rent should be.

Randall Hordo, a lawyer for the leaseholders, said that under the ruling, the rents will now average less than $25,000 per year, to be paid from 2015 to 2035.

“They’re relieved,” he said of his clients. “There’s been a tremendous concern about the loss of their family homes, the potential loss of their family homes. It’s been a very intense and emotionally draining experience for all of them. But now there’s stability going forward.”

Since the band issued the notices in 2015, the leaseholders have been paying rent at the previous rate.

It’s the second time the contentious issue of rent increases for the properties, which are located adjacent to the tony Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, has gone before the courts.

The first rent review was in 1995, when the Musqueam demanded that the leaseholders pay an average of $36,000 per year. The residents, who are on 99-year leases that began in 1965, had been paying less than $400 per year up to that point.

The case went to the Federal Court of Canada and to the Supreme Court of Canada, with the country’s highest court finding that a fair rent was six per cent of the current land value, for an average of $10,000 per year, to be paid from 1995 until 2015.

In her ruling, Justice Mactavish noted that each side was harshly critical of their opponents’ land appraisal expert, impugning both their competence and their professional integrity.

Both appraisers were properly accredited with years of experience in the Vancouver market, but the judge found that the appraiser for the leaseholders had superior qualifications.

Mactavish said the appraiser for the band, who put forward a proposed average rent of up to $142,000 per year, showed a lack of care in his analysis, which raised serious concerns about the reliability of his evidence.

The appraiser for the leaseholders on the other hand provided a careful and transparent analysis that was backed up by market data, said the judge.

“His analysis showed rigour and a depth of understanding of the data and its application to the valuation exercise at issue in this action.”

The defendant band has 30 days in which to decide whether they want to file an appeal of the ruling, which was released May 18. The band could not be reached for comment.