Tenant takes up battle against landlord ‘loophole’
A renter is fighting to keep her east-end home after an eviction order from a new landlord who bought just a 1 per cent stake in the property
It is a case of mass eviction that began with a remarkably modest real estate deal.
The tenants of a semi-detached house in Toronto’s east end could be forced from their rental homes after a 1 per cent stake of the property, at a cost of $9,000, was transferred to a 20-yearold first-time homebuyer.
With that sliver of ownership, Jacky Bai Jun Liu also acquired the title of landlord, and as such, seven people in two apartments in the house were informed, he would be pursuing his legal right to push them out because he intended to move into the home near Danforth and Greenwood Aves.
“It was kind of like a slap in the face,” says tenant Devon McKenzie, 24, who shares a lower-level unit with three roommates. “How does that 1 per cent give anybody any sort of right to have any say at all?”
The upstairs neighbours opted to move. McKenzie, with the support of her roommates, is fighting the eviction and a hearing is scheduled at the Landlord and Tenant Board for Sept. 18.
There, a board member must determine if it is both fair and legal for Liu, as a 1 per cent owner, to claim both apartments in the house under a part of the Residential Tenancies Act that allows landlords to evict for personal use.
Win or lose at the board, McKenzie says she hopes sharing her story will highlight what she sees as a loophole in housing law in a city with a dearth of affordable rental units.
“There doesn’t need to be one more reason that people are being evicted in this housing market,” says McKenzie, who has lived in the home for about three years. “I am not just doing this for me. I’m doing it for my roommates as well — who also can’t afford to find anywhere else to live.”
According to the RTA, the title of landlord can belong to somebody who owns part or all of a unit, as properties can have more than one landlord. It doesn’t specify an amount each individual must own.
The bulk of the east-end house, 99 per cent, belongs to George Chiang and Harriet HoYin Chung, who bought the home for $230,000 in 2001, property records show. It is one of 17 houses the pair own in the old city of Toronto. The couple, according to their personal websites, are members of both the Canadian and Hong Kong arts communities.
A transfer document from the Land Registry Office dated June 18 shows that spouses Chiang and Chung transferred a 1 per cent interest to Liu, worth $9,000, identified as a first-time homebuyer.
The N12 notice informing the tenants that Liu planned to evict them for personal use were also dated June 18 and is signed at the bottom by Liu. Chung is co-named as a landlord on the front of that eviction form. Tenants from both units were offered an additional month’s rent in compensation — as required under the law.
Chung is solely identified as landlord on other forms, including a March notice sent to McKenzie informing her of a standard rent increase to begin in July.
Multiple attempts to reach the couple and Liu did not elicit a response, including to questions regarding the relationship between them.
McKenzie says, after the property manager warned her the eviction notices were coming, that she pressed him to be connected with the owner. Liu phoned her, she says, and during a short call, Liu told her his parents bought him the stake in the house, that he was a Ryerson University student and intended to move in along with his friends, McKenzie says. News of the eviction quickly spread through what McKenzie calls a “tight-knit” group of neighbours. (Among them is a Toronto Star reporter, who had no part in writing this story.) McKenzie and her three roommates pay $1,900 for a unit that spans the first floor and basement. The property has a tiny backyard, is close to public transit and a few steps to a mid-sized park.
James Vorstenbosch, 35, one of three people from the upstairs unit who decided to move, says they paid just under $1,750 for the upstairs unit. He says the notices were not a surprise.
Vorstenbosch had lived in the unit for almost eight years and watched home prices skyrocket on their street. He and the other tenants in that unit had already considered moving and are a bit older and more established, he says, so finding a new place they could afford wouldn’t be as difficult as it would be for people in their 20s.
“I was surprised that it only took 1 per cent to be called an owner with the power to evict. I think that should be considered a loophole and should be closed,” Vorstenbosch says.
“Whether or not we intended to move, whether or not we wanted to move, we still got kicked out, that is the bottom line.”
Chiang and Chung bought 17 houses across the former city of Toronto between 1999 and 2011, property records show.
Chiang was born in Ottawa and is a writer, composer, actor and children’s author, according to his online resumé. He’s had stage roles at the Stratford Festival and film credits include a small part in X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
Chiang also wrote and composed the musical Golden Lotus, in which Chung, whose online resumé says she has held principle roles with the Ontario Ballet Theatre, among other companies, had a lead role, according to the show’s website.
None of the other houses in the former city of Toronto have a third name on the title.
The couple share the title of an East York property with an 18year-old with the same last name and that was purchased this spring.
Lawyer Caryma Sa’d represents both tenants and landlords and says, speaking generally, that if a group of landlords are working as a team it could be argued they have equal rights to a property regardless of how much each person owns.
However, when it comes to properties with two units, she says, it would be difficult to make the case that a single individual needed both for personal use simultaneously. The layout of the house, how the units are divided, would also be a factor, she says.
“People are finding more creative ways to make the rules work in their favour and if you have the resources to do it you can throw several things at the wall to see what sticks,” Sa’d says.
“This is maybe just a back door that has not been used up until this point, or if it has it has been used sparingly.”
The rule around personal use was created to ensure that a landlord could, for a good reason, take back property they owned. They could take the unit for themselves, a spouse, a child or parent, or somebody providing live-in care for any of those people.
Sa’d notes that is one of the challenges facing landlords trying to reclaim property they own. They are restricted by a narrow definition of family, she says, and if they wanted to accommodate a cousin, child of a friend or anybody outside that immediate group they need to find another way to try and gain access.
Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government has included a review of the RTA as part of a broad housing action plan with any potential legislative changes expected to take place in fall.
“We consulted broadly and heard many ideas on how to enhance the rental experience for both tenants and landlords,” Conrad Spezowka, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, wrote in an email.
“With any proposed changes brought forward, we will ensure the continued protection of tenants, including from unlawful evictions and keeping buildings well maintained.”
Rules state that whoever moves in must live in the unit for at least a year and evicted tenants are entitled to one month’s rent or comparable accommodations. Somebody who purchases a unit can also force people out under the same personal-use restrictions, but, if done by the seller on their behalf, does not have to give compensation.
Since Liu sent the notice form as the landlord, informing the tenants he was evicting them for the landlord’s own use, he must and did offer to provide one month’s rent as compensation as outlined on the form.
When it comes to the hearing, Kenn Hale, director of legal services for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, says Landlord and Tenant Board members are required, as is outlined in a section of the RTA, to look beyond the forms and determine if the law is being used as it was intended.
“This is exactly the kind of thing this section is there for,” Hale says. “This should not be allowed. Somebody with a minor interest should not be held to be a landlord for the purpose of eviction and the board should say that clearly based on the real substance of the transaction.”
In the meantime, McKenzie and her roommates have received two warnings that they could be evicted for withholding July’s rent, which she says they did because they would prefer to turn the funds over to the board to be held in trust until a decision is made, and is researching if it is possible in this case. The first includes Chung’s name only, and the second lists both Chung and Liu.
“I would rather it go to (the board) until this is all done,” McKenzie says.