Landlord asks BC tenant to pay his property taxes then tries to evict him

A BC tenant had an unusual relationship with his landlord where he’d pay property taxes and do renovations and deduct the amount from his rent — until the landlord tried to evict him for withholding rent.

Tenant Andro Sanchez received an eviction notice in March and has fought it all the way to the BC Supreme Court. A judge released a decision on the matter Thursday.

“Mr. Sanchez submits that he had a long-standing arrangement with the landlord, who was based in China, whereby Mr. Sanchez would pay certain expenses, including property taxes, on behalf of the landlord and then would hold an equivalent amount of rent in compensation for the expenditures,” the judge wrote.

The matter was initially heard by a Residential Tenancy Branch arbitrator, who upheld the eviction because Sanchez paid about $13,000 less than the rent he was supposed to based on his lease agreement.

However, the Supreme Court judge found that the arbitrator didn’t properly examine the dispute and didn’t take into account that Sanchez withheld the rent because he spent that money on expenses for the landlord.

The landlord apparently wanted to increase revenue from the home, and Sanchez offered to build a secondary suite. The tenant prepared a budget, and the two agreed he would do renovations and deduct his payment from his rent.

Work on the secondary suite began in late 2023, and he withheld rent from December 2023 to February 2024. The following month, the landlord issued the eviction notice for non-payment of rent.

The judge found the RTB’s initial decision to uphold the eviction patently unreasonable, saying the arbitrator didn’t properly analyze the situation. The judge sent the case back to the RTB for a re-hearing.