10 hours ago
Tenants of Halifax mobile home park set water meter precedent across Nova Scotia
People living in mobile home parks around Nova Scotia could be eligible for thousands of dollars in retroactive water bill payments following a "big win" in court for Halifax-area tenants.
A Supreme Court of Nova Scotia decision this month upheld an earlier small claims court ruling that found billing tenants for water through water meters was always unreasonable, and awarded retroactive compensation to two residents who had been billed for years.
The tenants, Eloise Graves and Nicole Herd of Woodbine Park in Beaver Bank, said it was a tough "David and Goliath power dynamic" to go up against their landlord.
But both women said support from fellow tenants kept them going, and they're proud of the result setting a provincewide precedent.
"This wasn't about money. This was about making it fair," said Graves, who will receive about $1,700 for the meter fee and retroactive bills since 2021.
"It feels awesome. But on the other hand, we kind of [don't] believe it. It's kind of a weird feeling," said Herd, who will get about $2,511 for her bills dating to 2019.
Since 2015, the Woodbine landlord charged residents to install meters on homes sold in the park, leading to a tiered system where some residents paid for water and some did not. The meters track how much water a household uses, and those customers are billed every few months.
Utilities like water are usually included in lot fees for park residents in Nova Scotia. They are among the operating expenses that landlords can cite when they argue for rent increases.
Landlords of mobile home parks, officially called land-lease communities, were directed by the provincial Residential Tenancies Program to stop installing water meters on homes in 2023.
But the policy excluded tenants who already had meters. Graves and Herd were among the roughly 300 of Woodbine's 630 homeowners who had meters and continued to get water bills.
Both women took their case to small claims court and won in September 2024. But landlord Westphal Court Ltd. appealed, bringing the matter before the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
Westphal's lawyer argued the 2023 policy was legally binding and should exclude anyone with water meters from compensation. But in her June 9 decision, Justice Mona Lynch said both the small claims adjudicator and residential tenancies had found water metering an unreasonable rule.
"It is not reasonable for that unreasonable rule to continue to apply to the respondents," Lynch said.
Nora MacIntosh, a Nova Scotia Legal Aid lawyer, represented Graves and Herd at small claims court.
"We don't often get big wins for tenants. So yeah, this is a big win," MacIntosh said.
"It provides economic justice to the tenants of land-lease communities, and it deters exploitative practices by landlords."
It's unclear how many people could benefit from the decision, but MacIntosh said it is likely hundreds if not thousands of tenants in the province.
Service Nova Scotia could not tell CBC News how many land-lease communities are operating in Nova Scotia or how many are using water meters.
There are about 30 of these communities with nearly 4,000 homes in the Halifax municipality alone. Westphal Court Ltd. owns six parks, including Woodbine, with a total of about 1,600 homes.
Susan McKeage, a spokesperson for Service Nova Scotia, said Lynch's ruling was a "positive decision" for the Woodbine tenants, and the water meter policy has now been revised to include tenants with existing meters on their homes.
McKeage said eligible tenants can contact the Residential Tenancies Program to file for their individual compensation.
Woodbine tenant Erin McInnis was one of 91 mobile park residents who filed with Service Nova Scotia last year looking for that compensation. Most of those cases have been on hold pending the result of the Supreme Court case.
McInnis has had a water meter since 2017 when she moved in, and estimates she might be eligible for about $5,000 in water bills.
"It's pretty exciting. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that money back," McInnis said. "Who doesn't need $5,000 in this economy?"
But because the residential tenancy process can take so long, especially with potentially hundreds of people filing claims, MacIntosh said landlords should proactively pay back any tenants they've been "improperly charging" for water services.
It appears at least one landlord will take that approach.
In a letter to tenants on Tuesday, Westphal Court president Heather Scott said they were immediately stopping their practice of charging for water and sewer services in "standalone amounts" in light of the Supreme Court decision.
Residents with water meters looking for compensation can send a request in writing to Westphal directly, Scott said, and "we are prepared to work with you to resolve such a claim." They will also work with anyone who has already filed a claim with residential tenancies, Scott said.
"We trust that this process will prove to be preferable to all parties as compared to adjudication," Scott said.
McInnis is also secretary of the Woodbine Community Non-Profit Society, which has been raising concerns about water meters and other issues in Nova Scotia parks for the past few years.
She echoed Graves and Herd's comments that having tenants talk to each other and take action in larger groups has been key to making progress.
"When it's just one or two people, that's how things fall between the cracks. But when we come together, we're a force," McInnis said.
McInnis said they recently launched the Land Lease Residents of Nova Scotia Non Profit Society that will have a provincewide view on larger issues, with Woodbine and other parks forming subcommittees.
She said they have heard from land-lease tenants across Nova Scotia who have said water meters are being used in "lots of places" around the province.
