BC landlord claims he lost rent after cancelled Home Depot appointment
After Home Depot cancelled an installation appointment, a BC man took the company to small claims court and is seeking three months’ lost rent.
According to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, Nosratollah Shoa said Home Depot was scheduled to install a shower door on March 16, 2023. However, “right before” the appointment, Home Depot cancelled and said he would have to wait a month for the installation.
Due to the cancellation, Shoa claims he missed a day of work and could not rent out his property. This is why he’s seeking $5,000 for lost rent and unspecified compensation for the time he missed from work and time spent to “rectify the situation.”
Home Depot explained that Shoa arranged to have the door installed on March 8, 2023. However, the subcontractor, Quick Contractors, which was scheduled to install the door, reached out to say the installer was injured in an accident and could not work.
It said Quick told Home Depot the only other qualified installer was on vacation until the end of March. Home Depot said Shoa refused to wait and reschedule with a different contractor. Home Depot argues it is not entitled to damages because Shoa did not mitigate his losses.
Shoa claims the cancellation was a breach of contract and is entitled to “non-performance damages.” However, the shower door purchase invoice from November 2020 says, “Home Depot and the installer are not responsible for any delays in installation for any cause beyond the control of Home Depot and/or the installer.”
Since there isn’t evidence Shoa saw the term on the invoice, the tribunal member said, “I find this term on the invoice is not binding … Also, the purchase invoice is an entirely separate contract from the installation contract, which had no written agreement.”
However, the tribunal member said Shoa was not able to prove any breach of contract and could have mitigated his losses by hiring his own contractor. The member added that Shoa also was not able to prove that he had advertised his property for rent, that the space was unrentable without the shower door, or confirm the amount of rent he would have collected over the three months.
Amid several other reasons, the tribunal member concluded that Shoa was not entitled to damages for lost rent, “even if Home Depot did breach the contract, as lost rent was not a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the breach.”
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