Evictions - Part I

Evictions are proceeding at a rapid rate in our co-op, mostly due to arrears. We were told by the Board at such a meeting the other night that CMHC said that we must go 'by the letter of the law'. But do we really adhere to that direction? How many other members at the meeting were in arrears themselves and voted to oust another member in similar circumstances?

It is truly a 'trying' situation for a member facing eviction. How fair is the process when a member can say 'Call the Question' and your fate thereafter rests with the members' votes? How impartial might their votes be? In this regard, I wish that co-ops would fall under The Landlord Tenant Act; one would stand a more balanced Hearing.

Were all the members who were recently presented with Eviction Notices treated equally and apprised of their rights? Or was the tone of the letters they received so intimidating, that they chose not to appeal the decision of the Board to evict them.

I find eviction meetings very humiliating. I equate these meetings to public shamings and I cannot help but to think to myself, 'There But the Grace of God Go I'. Because it could happen to anyone - the charges could be merely trumped up, or frivolous. What if there is no quorum? I heard it stated at a recent meeting that 'The Board would wait ten minutes for members to show up, and if there was no quorum, it would be a wrap'. A wrap indeed!

In 1998 a Petition to evict me was signed by eighteen members. They weren't going to evict my husband and children - just me. The charges were that my writings were controversial and that I was in violation of the Pet Policy having two pets whilst sitting on the Board of Directors. There were many people in the co-op in violation of the Pet Policy, including the initiator of my proposed eviction. My husband and I were long proponents of following the City's Pet By-laws as these take precedence over the co-op's by-laws and we were in concurrence with them. (The co-op now follows the City's Pet By-law.)

If the Petitioners weren't successful in evicting me, they contrived a list of other options. The scheming that went into this Petition was quite incredible. One option was to strip me of my membership for a lifetime. I could then apply for 'Guest' status and that my husband would have to be responsible for any and all of my actions. Another option was to force me to resign from the Board of Directors and that I would never again be able to run for the Board during my occupancy in this co-op. A Restraining Order and a Performance Agreement would also be implemented in order to keep me in line.

I distributed, in writing, my response to the above. 'Guest Status' was the most sinister of the options. A Guest has no rights in a co-op. If a Board of Directors decides to end the Guest Status of a person, the person is denied the right to appeal such a decision. This was a diabolical attempt to evict me by default. A member came up to me while I was distributing my response. She asked me if I was the member in question. I said 'Yes'. She then asked me how she could remove her name from the Petition as she agreed with what I had to say. This woman did not even know me and yet had signed the Petition to evict me. An hour or so later a letter was distributed informing members that 'For legal reasons' the meeting to evict me was postponed, not cancelled - they had lost one of the requisite eighteen people needed to start a Petition. To date I am technically on hold . . .

This was not the first time that I had been singled out for eviction. In another co-op a husband and wife were on the Board of Directors together. They ran duct tape across the office floor near the entrance and a sign on the counter read "DO NOT CROSS THIS LINE". Well, I guess I transgressed this new principle in law, because a Notice was slipped under my door informing me that I had to attend a Hearing at the next Board meeting and that they were charging me with being a nuisance. A review of the By-laws quickly indicated to me that this could lead to eviction, so I contacted a lawyer. The lawyer advised me to invite ALL the members to attend my Board Hearing. At the next General Meeting, I stood up in front of the members and invited everyone. A short time later a Notice was distributed to members, indicating that this so-called Hearing had been postponed, not dropped. I wanted to pursue this further, as I knew how vulnerable people could be to this type of abuse. I asked the Board to hold a meeting to allow my lawyer to speak to the members about their rights. The Board refused, so I booked the hall in my own name and invited the lawyer. The meeting was very well attended, appreciated and a real eye opener for all.

Co-ops can be insular and cult-like. It's healthy to keep a foothold in the real world.