Eviction victim or not? BC tenant takes legal fight to former landlord
To put it lightly, Vancouver’s housing situation can be considered a bit of a mess. Rent prices have soared across the city, so it might not come as a surprise that one man decided to sue his landlord after he claimed he was evicted.
Ifeanyi Ngwoke filed a lawsuit against Susan Kennedy with the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal for $1,475 after claiming that Kennedy evicted him with only six days’ notice in breach of their agreement. Ngwoke moved into a room in Kennedy’s house in October 2022 and moved out less than two months later, on November 29, 2022.
In his claim, Ngwoke sued for the $450 security deposit Kennedy refused to pay back when he moved out and $1,000 as compensation for the insufficient notice of his eviction.
However, Kennedy fired back at Ngwoke and claimed that she had not evicted him but that he had instead moved out on his own accord with only two days’ notice, breaching their agreement.
For the court, this came down to a matter of whether the landlord or the tenant breached the agreement.
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In Ngwoke’s battle for his $1,000 eviction stress compensation claim, he gave the court the name of a witness who could back his story. He said that a day or two after he received the move-out notice from Kennedy, she had offered to extend his tenancy until the end of December, but by then, he had already decided to move to Saskatchewan.
Sadly for Ngwoke, the name of the witness didn’t prove to be enough to support his claim. The decision detailed that there was no statement provided by the witness.
Even though Kennedy also didn’t provide any evidence to support her side of the story that Ngwoke moved out of his own accord with only two days’ notice, the court decided to dismiss the $1,000 compensation claim. The decision shared that Ngwoke “failed to prove he suffered any damages by having to move out with less than 30 daysā written notice.”
While he was unsuccessful with the compensation claim, the court decided in favour of the $450 claim. According to the court, Kennedy didn’t provide any evidence that Ngwoke left any damages in her home and “failed to establish that she is entitled to keep Mr. Ngwokeās damage deposit.”
Ngwoke may have lost the war, but he won the battle. Kennedy was ordered to pay Ngwoke $450 for the return of the security deposit, plus $23.84 in pre-judgement interest.