CHCH: Tenant being sued by landlord in an ongoing dispute at a Hamilton mountain townhouse complex
Posted March 4, 2022
Posted March 4, 2022
A tenant on the Hamilton mountain is being sued by her landlord in an ongoing dispute between their townhouse complex and its tenants.
Chantelle Pruner, and the people who live in the 13 other units in her townhouse complex, have been told they have to vacate their apartments by Monday.
In a letter dated September 9th, 2021 the tenants at 1123 Upper Wellington were told the property they live in had been sold and was being demolished. They were told they’d be getting substantial compensation and that they needed to leave.
The tenants looked into who was buying the property. The company had the same owner as the current owner of their townhouse. On February 8th the owner gave Pruner an N-13 that said the property had to be vacant for repairs and to be vacant by February 28th, but he dated the N-13 for October.
Landlords must give tenants 120 days’ notice to move out. The tenants say the papers were given to them only 20 days before they had to leave.
Pruner was then sued by the owner for 35 thousand dollars. The papers say Pruner was “found to be colluding to interfere with the sale of the property.” Pruner says she spoke to other tenants about the eviction notice and the lawsuit claims she was “making derogatory statements in an attempt to injure the plaintiff’s economic interest.” Pruner believes she was standing up for her rights and didn’t know she was doing anything against the law.
The tenants say they have no plans to leave. The Hamilton Community Legal Clinic says with an N-13 notice, a tenant has the right of first refusal and they have the right to move back in at the same rent if they choose.
Some of the renters have been here for over ten years. They pay between 8-hundred to one-thousand dollars. They fear the owner wants them out so that he can raise the rent with new tenants.
Acorn Hamilton says they are seeing landlords do that across the city of Hamilton.
CHCH News tried to call the owner of the townhouse, but the calls weren’t returned.
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Article source: CHCH News