Halifax woman faced ‘demoviction’ from apartment while case was before tenancy program

Shailagh Benteau watched during the last week as the apartment building in Halifax where she’s lived for seven years has been demolished, work done despite a residential tenancy order stating she didn’t have to leave her unit until the end of September.

Benteau said when she arrived at the apartment at 3343 Westerwald St. the evening of June 10, the power was cut and there was a massive hole in an exterior wall. She said that’s when she realized “there’s nothing in place to stop this from happening.”

“I have felt more helpless this week than ever before in my life,” Benteau said.

She said she called police, and an officer told her the building was no longer safe and she would need to vacate it. Benteau went in, got her two cats and small valuables together, and went to stay with family for the night before returning the next day for her other items.

A residential tenancy hearing had been held a week earlier, on June 3, as the property owner, RC Jane Properties, sought to evict Benteau because it wanted to demolish the apartment units. There is a pending permit to construct another multi-unit building at the site.

A director with the tenancy program had two weeks to issue a decision before demolition could take place.

But the work got underway before an order was handed down. The order was issued on June 12, two days later, and stated that while the landlord could evict Benteau because the building was set to be demolished, her tenancy wouldn’t be terminated until Sept. 30.

Benteau said she tried to call several organizations to stop her eviction, but no one, not the fire department, police or the city’s 311 line said they could help her.

“There was nothing I could do, my home was going to be destroyed,” Benteau said.

The only group that helped her out was ACORN, a non-profit housing advocacy organization, which held a rally Tuesday to support her as her building was being torn down.

CBC made several attempts to contact RC Jane for comment, but did not receive a response by deadline.

RC Jane applied for a demolition permit from the city on March 16 and it was granted four days later.

It then had to evict tenants from the building. Twenty-three tenants agreed, in one form or another, to leave, according to the tenancy decision. Some were told their fixed-term leases would not be renewed, while others were provided with Form DR5 with a vacancy date for early June.

Sydnee Blum from Dalhousie Legal Aid Service said Form DR5 is essentially a “mutual agreement” between a landlord and a tenant to terminate the tenancy on a certain date so demolition or major renovations can take place.

“Baked into that DR5 is a requirement to compensate tenants between one to three months rent, depending on the size of the building,” Blum said.

Benteau was sent a Form DR5 in March, but she did not sign it. This then meant the landlord had to file with the residential tenancy program to terminate the tenancy for the purpose of demolition. RC Jane Properties did so on April 20.

Blum said demolition should not have occurred before the tenancy program order was issued.

“We have a clear order saying that the tenant was supposed to be able to remain in that unit until September 30th, and the landlord took it upon themselves to tear the building down anyway,” Blum said.

“So yes, there was a direct contravention of that order and this is absolutely an unlawful demoviction.”

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