BC landlord claims basement tenants were her roommates and demands $5K
A BC landlord tried to get $5,000 out of her former basement tenants after they left without sufficient notice.
The homeowner, Crystal Bertacco, went to BC’s Civil Resolution Tribunal seeking compensation for the lack of notice and alleged damage to the suite.
She claimed Melissa Lilley and her family, who lived in the basement, were her roommates and that they all used the house’s common areas. Therefore, Bertacco argued, the Residential Tenancy Act didn’t apply.
But Lilley said that wasn’t true, saying instead that her family rented the basement from Bertacco. They had their own kitchen, bathroom, and living area separated from the main house by doors.
The CRT looked at text messages exchanged between the two and found they would message each other before accessing the other’s unit — namely Bertacco accessing storage or the furnace room. The CRT found the households only shared the laundry room the entryway.
The CRT didn’t agree with Bertacco’s claim that the living situation was exempt from tenancy law and referred the case to the Residential Tenancy Branch.