How To Not Lose at
BC's RTB Dispute-Resolution Hearings with
Superior Written & Video Evidence Presentations I won/assisted in more than ten successful Residential Tenancy Branch Dispute Resolution disputes and reviews. This is what I did: (Don't ask 'why' - explanations will take too long.) • Had hard evidence in the form of email, recorded phone calls, FOI government documents, a Title Search, or text screen shots or videos. • Did not use the online application form. File in person with your paperwork in hand. • Used additional sheets for text. e.g, wrote, “See attached pages 1 through 7” • My adverse party filed paperwork. Therefore, I provided written “submission” replies in the form of a spreadsheet or “Word table” in landscape format, quoting facts and legal precedents (also called “authorities”, with page and paragraph references.) • Did not use the optional Monetary Order Form. Uploaded evidence in video form, with annotations. Always used Registered Mail. Never relied on personal service of documents.
See what I've won, so far: • Got the landlord's 2-month eviction and 1-month eviction notices cancelled. RTB files #866984, #31022471, #31021367, #31021691 • Rent reduced by $105/month #866987 Rent reduced by another $457/month #31027213 Damages in the form of one months' rent, $1,257 in my favour. #31027213 Arbitrator put landlord on notice for sec.95 Administrative Penalties ($5K/day) #31027213 pg. 5: “As a note, the Landlord is now on notice that continued noncompliance with the Act may result in Being nominated to Guinness World Records as the winning-est renter Administrative Penalties being recommended”
Who needs help, in my opinion, and why: • Renters or landlords lacking photo-image cropping, video-making, skills and resources. • Renters or landlords may need to “capture” better evidence, e.g. phone calls • Renters or landlords with video may over 16MB and inexplicably fail to upload to the RTB's Dispute Access website • Renters or landlords lacking experience in searching prior RTB decisions, arbitrators' reviews, or BC Supreme Court judgments. • Renters or landlords might lose key evidence before getting to upload it. Renters or landlords may not realize that Aggravated Damages are available under the Residential Tenancy Act and its Regulations.
My own experience with British Columbia's RTB proceedings: • The BC Residential Tenancy Branch's intake system is much more efficient, and accessible, than the BC Small Claims Court process. • The arbitrators usually write-up just (righteous) decisions and reviews. The RTB answers emails efficiently. I learned an awful lot of real-world information by talking to Metro Vancouver landlords and tenants, who were standing in the hallway before RTB offices opened.
About Me: I was once a landlord (with 12 units, and member of the Western New York Real Estate Investors Association); a former paralegal. I never provide legal advice. I rely on the “Law of Gratitude” everyday. My cell phone:
(778) 697-nine-five-six-seven
My email (I only check weekly): style + r + free + domm - last “m” @ ”gee-mail” dot com I am a retired paralegal (a "pit bull" according to a legal magazine) who wants to assist a tenant or landlord. Why? I also earn good karma, Law of Gratitude "points", whenever I help someone. What I can tell you - not legal advice - there are fuzzy kinks in the RTB dispute resolution procedure, and forms, which trip up careless applicants. • Good news for tenants: There are a handful of renters who actually got their landlords to pay e.g. for loss of quiet enjoyment .. search the RTB decisions database.
• N.B. I am allergic to "complaints". Why? Because complaints are contrary to the Universal Law of Attraction/Abraham Hicks. • If you're contacting me for help, please describe your problem with document dates, especially if you were served with an Eviction Notice (there are tight deadlines for filing.) • Disclosure. I once owned rental properties and am a former member of Western New York Real Estate Investors Assn. • MY OPINION ABOUT British Columbia's Residential Tenancy Act. This statute and its regulations and guidelines are very good. However, first-timers will likely miss the other relief available to tenants, so read the Act, regulations, and decisions. Use Canlii.org also. The dispute resolution process required hard evidence to win; I did't rely on verbal presentation. I won through hard work, video-editing software, a capable cell phone, like a Note4 running on the old, but reliable, Android 5.0.1. • Tenant-flipping happening to you? Some landlords are switching to AirBnB. Need help?
*** Here's a helpful anecdote from someone who also helps apartment-residents: (Start snip) I also help people with Landlord problems. Lots of landlords go after ones they think may not know the RTA but they don't know if that person might know anyone who does know the RTA. One such co-worker showed me a letter his landlord gave him and it said he had to be out. I said no, she can't just give you that, it has to be on a legal form and I got it for him. The landlord wanted him to move to fix up the place but all she wanted to do was paint. He told me she only wants cash and won't give receipts. Sounds like an Illegal Suite I said. I said, give her this form. Well, he went to the RTB and they told him what I said. Now it could also be that maybe this landlord might not know the act herself. I work in Low Income Housing. (Endsnip)