Latest news with #CornerstoneSelectProperties
CBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Hamilton landlord fined $100K for illegal renovictions that had 'devastating' impacts on tenants, court hears
A Hamilton tenant says she's impressed with a "fantastic" judge's recent decision to fine her former landlord $100,000 for illegally renovicting her and three other tenants, even if they'll never get their homes back. "That's a good place to start to show the landlords of Ontario they can't just throw their tenants out," Darlene Wesley told CBC Hamilton. The senior had lived in her downtown apartment for nearly 20 years and never missed a rent payment when, in February 2023, the building's owner Kevin Moniz evicted her in order to carry out extensive renovations. Wesley informed him in writing and in person she intended to move back in after the work was done — as is her right under Ontario law. But within months, he'd rented it out to someone else. He did the same to three other tenants living in the five-unit building, including Wesley's daughter. The tenants testified during a trial against Moniz and property management company Cornerstone Select Properties at Hamilton's provincial offences courthouse on May 12. Justice of the Peace Linda Crawford found Moniz guilty on four counts of knowingly failing to give the tenants the right of first refusal for their units and fined him $25,000 for each. "A general deterrent in my view is very important in these kinds of circumstances, where there's a landlord with a small building that was once affordable for people," Crawford told the court. Moniz was not present for the trial and did not respond to requests for comment. Crawford gave him two weeks to pay the $100,000 — a high amount for Residential Tenancy Act violations. The charges against Moniz were laid last year by Ontario's Rental Housing Enforcement Unit (RHEU), which is mandated to uphold landlord and tenant rights and investigate complaints. It works independently from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). By comparison, in all of 2022, fines stemming from charges laid by RHEU totalled $121,800. Tenant can't afford new place Crawford found Moniz acted deliberately and the impacts on the tenants have been "devastating." "In my view, there was quite a bit of foresight to renovate apartments and he made a decision to essentially flip them and rent them out more than double what he had been getting before," she said. Before being evicted, the four tenants said they each paid less than $700 a month in rent. A new tenant who moved into one of the units after the renovations told the court she currently pays $1,500. The eviction process began for the four tenants in March 2021, when they received N13 notices from Moniz. Their cases went to the LTB, which ruled in Moniz's favour that the units did need to be empty for him to complete renovations. Three of the tenants moved out before Wesley. They all testified they told Moniz in writing that they'd move back into their units when the work was done. Tenant Robert Jewel said he had no other option. He worked a minimum wage job and wanted to keep the unit he'd been able to afford for 25 years, he testified. But one night, when renovations were supposed to still be happening, he walked by the building and through a window saw someone in his unit's living room, watching TV. He later learned it was a new tenant. "And to be honest, I cried that night when I discovered my apartment had been taken away from me," Jewel said. "It's like I'm a second class citizen all of the sudden just because this greedy person comes along." Unable to afford to rent a new place, Jewel said he has been couch surfing at friends and family's homes since he was evicted. "I'm almost out on the street and I don't have my own place anymore and that loss of freedom, I really, keenly feel," Jewel said. Property management company fined Wesley and her daughter had no choice but to find a place together and now pay $2,000 a month, an arrangement Wesley described as a "nightmare." "Now I've got nothing because all my money goes to rent," she told the court. She said she left her place in 2023 thinking she'd definitely be coming back as she took all the steps she was supposed to. In the weeks before she moved, she had provided Moniz with several copies of a signed letter stating her intentions, and verbally told him the same thing in front of a representative from Cornerstone — the property management company Moniz had hired to find new tenants. Welsey testified that on another occasion somebody from Cornerstone was showing a unit to prospective tenants. She told that person, "'all of the apartments ... have the right of first refusal' and he said, 'I know, I know, I know.'" Company president Jeff Varcoe represented Cornerstone in court. He denied the allegations, saying nobody at his company knew about the "entire building being renovicted" and he hasn't been able to substantiate Wesley's account. Crawford said she did not find Varcoe's testimony credible and fined Cornerstone $25,000, plus a $6,250 victim surcharge, for not ensuring Wesley had the opportunity to move back into her unit. "That's not something we have the financial ability to cover at all," Varcoe said. "This will bankrupt us."
Hamilton Spectator
16-05-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton landlord fined $100K for not allowing tenants back after renovations
When Darlene Wesley's landlord told her and other tenants of their small east Hamilton building to clear out for renovations, they protested. Those long-term residents of 309 Strathearne Ave. also told the property owner they expected to move back in at the same rent once the work was done. Such conditions governing existing tenants' first right of refusal are enshrined in provincial legislation, but their landlord still re-rented the apartments and jacked up the rates. 'It was traumatizing for us,' Wesley, 68, told The Spectator more than two years after she was forced to leave her home of 18 years. In a Hamilton courtroom this week, Kevin Moniz was convicted on four counts of not recognizing the four tenants' express desire to return to their homes. Justice of the peace Linda Crawford issued Moniz, who didn't attend the provincial offences trial, a $25,000 penalty for each count, amounting to $100,000 overall. Cornerstone Select Properties, the firm Moniz hired in January 2023 to lease the vacated units, was convicted on one count relating to Wesley's ordeal only, resulting in a $25,000 fine. In explaining her ruling, Crawford said 'when push came to shove,' Moniz didn't afford the tenants' first of refusal, a serious matter in an increasingly unaffordable housing market . Beyond the renovation plan, he decided to 'essentially flip (the apartments) and rent them out for more than double of what he had been getting before.' The displaced tenants provided 'very moving testimony' of how this decision had affected them, Crawford said. 'Their lives have been irrevocably changed.' Darlene Wesley, who joined Hamilton ACORN to fight to stay in her apartment of 18 years, said she and her daughter now pay more than $2,000 a month in rent. A day earlier, Wesley broke down during testimony, explaining she'd never been late on her rent during her many years at 309 Strathearne. 'I was a good tenant and I really thought we were going to come back, but that didn't happen,' said Wesley, who paid $720 a month. Her daughter, Candace Fusaro, 44, lived in a basement apartment at the same address. Once forced out, Fusaro managed to temporarily rent the apartment of an acquaintance they'd met through Hamilton ACORN, which helped take up the tenants' battle to stay put. Wesley, meanwhile, lived with her son and his family for a spell, clinging to the hope they'd return to their homes within six months once the renovations were done. But before them, Wesley recalled, her sister spotted new drapes and shampoo bottles in the windows of her apartment before knocking on the door to find new tenants there. Since then, life has 'been a nightmare,' said Wesley, noting when she turned 65 and received Old Age Security, a boost from her disability cheques, she'd hoped to put some money away for her grandchildren. That's no longer possible, Wesley said, now that she and her daughter, who relies on disability payments, pay more than $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in Stoney Creek. 'It's just not fair.' The provincial offences case issued its verdict after the tenants' battles before the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), and in the first year of a new Hamilton bylaw meant to crack down on bad-faith evictions known as 'renovictions.' The program, which took effect in January, requires landlords to apply for renovation licences, pay fees, submit documentation and make arrangements for temporary accommodations for tenants who exercise their right to return without spikes in rent once work wraps up. In Ontario, landlords are able to evict tenants for extensive renovations that require building permits, but tenant advocates have condemned underhanded pressure tactics as a driver of displacement motivated by profit. Under provincial legislation, landlords can't hike fees beyond annual caps, but once units are vacated, they're able to charge new arrivals whatever the market can bear. Moniz, according to evidence presented in the trial, had offered to pay two tenants $2,500 each if they'd 'void' their right of first refusal to return to 309 Strathearne. One of them, Robert Jewell, told the court he'd lived at 309 Strathearne for 25 years. 'I was able to afford this unit on minimum wage.' But since his eviction and denied return, he has couch-surfed with friends and relatives. 'It was very troubling that this happened,' said Jewell, noting he'd 'definitely felt betrayed.' Losing a place of his own has also meant a loss of freedom, for example, to have friends over, he said. 'It really affected me,' he said. 'I'm a second-class citizen all of a sudden.' In his testimony, Herman van der Meiden said he now lives in an apartment that costs twice as much but is twice as small. 'So I've lost that.' Provincial prosecutor Adrian Canagasuriam made the case for the charges through the witnesses' testimony. But Canagasuriam also presented a series of emails and text messages the tenants exchanged with Moniz during the turbulent period under examination. Jeff Varcoe, president of Cornerstone, who represented his firm during the proceedings, pleaded not guilty to the charges. He told the court that none of the correspondence entered into evidence referenced his firm. 'Our names are not mentioned anywhere in those documents,' said Varcoe, who maintained Cornerstone didn't know about the tenants' status. He also rejected Wesley's assertion that a Cornerstone representative had been within earshot of a conversation she had with Moniz about her intention to come back. 'We don't know who this person is that was standing in the hallway.' Moreover, Cornerstone received 'no financial benefit' from rents and was only paid a $950 leasing fee, Varcoe emphasized. But Crawford said she could 'not accept' that Cornerstone, whose time as property manager overlapped with Wesley but not the others, didn't know the circumstances. After Varcoe said the $25,000 penalty would bankrupt his firm, Crawford gave him a year to pay, noting he could later apply for an extension if necessary. Moniz, who didn't show up for the trial, by contrast has 15 days to pay his fines. After the hearing, Wesley said she would have preferred stiffer penalties. She and her daughter, who have relied on a paralegal, still plan to pursue compensation for being denied first right of refusal. Wesley advises tenants caught up in similar circumstances to keep a detailed paper trail with their landlords. 'Oh yes, definitely, you have to record, record, record. You have to be your own advocate.'
