A B.C. tenant had to take the legal route in order to get some possessions back from his former landlord, including his birth certificate.
A dispute that made its way to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) was a fight about personal belongings.
The former B.C. tenant and the applicant in the case said the landlord and respondent kept some of his important possessions, while the landlord claims that the renter “abandoned” their property. The tenant valued the belongings at $5,000.
According to the CRT decision, the applicant moved into the respondent’s home sometime around January 2024. As part of the deal, the respondent agreed that the applicant would complete home repairs for a free month of rent in a room that had a shared bathroom.
Eventually, the deal was for the applicant to work five hours per week for a rent of $300 per month.
Sometime later that year, in November 2024, the relationship began to deteriorate. The respondent said she tried to evict the tenant on five separate occasions and that the police eventually removed him from the home.
The applicant alleged that the landlord would not return their personal property, and requested an order for the return of electronics, the contents of a safe, a desk, a dresser, and televisions and computer monitors.
Inside the safe was a birth certificate, a bracelet, a silver card, plastic knuckle dusters, a $20 bill, $20 in rare toonies, pennies, a jade turtle, a password book, and some other items, including cannabis.
The landlord claimed that the applicant abandoned their belongings and that she returned 95 per cent of the applicant’s belongings. She told the tribunal that she kept some items that the B.C. tenant allegedly stole. She also said she hoped to keep the allegedly stolen items to recoup “redemption fees” but said that after months of no redemption, she returned the allegedly stolen items to their original owners and gave away the others.
The tribunal found that the applicant never abandoned their belongings but that the landlord withheld them.
Turning to a remedy, the tribunal found that aside from the birth certificate, the landlord also still had the renter’s dresser.
The tribunal dismissed all monetary claims from the tenant, but ordered the landlord to return the dresser and birth certificate by making it available for pickup, or having someone designated to pick it up on their behalf.