On April 17, 2014, one day before Good Friday, a Notice to Appear was strategically placed in my neighbour's mailbox. The Notice stated that she is to appear before the Board of Directors at a meeting to be held on Tuesday, April 29, 2014, wherein they will consider ending her membership. Should the Board of Directors vote to evict the member, she will have to vacate her unit on May 11, 2014 - Ten (10) days later. The member has been living in the co-op for twenty-four years!
The reason for her proposed eviction is that she now owes the co-op $25.00 for breaching By-law 26 - feeding wildlife animals. She had an overturned green garbage pail on her front step landing, which had a chewed hole at the rim. This was deemed by the Property Manager to be a feeder. A small piece of wood was at the base of her deep basement window well. This was to harbour animals the Property Manager declared and promptly took photos of the two offences.
By-law 26 states:
Enforcement
1. For the first violation the Co-op will issue a written warning.
2. For the second violation, the member will be issued a $25.00 fine.
3. For the third and subsequent violation, the member will be issued a $50.00 (fine) and a notice to appear before the Board of Directors.
The member did not receive a $50.00 fine - she was immediately served with a Notice to Appear.
The letter stated that the member refused access to her unit by a maintenance man. She and her family were not feeling well that day, so she asked if he could return the next day. She waited for the maintenance man the next day, but he didn't show. When questioned later in the week, the maintenance man told her that he was given instructions by the Property Manager not to go back to the unit.
The member was also accused of 'intimidating and harassing behaviour towards members, their family and guests in the co-op past and present' and 'intimidating and harassing behaviour towards the office staff''. We have only one office staff, so that would be the Property Manager. The members/family/guests is her next door neighbour, who promptly reports to the Property Manager replete with photos.
The Notice to Appear states:
You do not have to vacate your unit, but the Co-operative may obtain a Writ of Possession (eviction order) from a court after your membership and occupancy rights are ended. If you do not vacate your unit, the Co-operative will also seek a court order that you pay its legal costs.
The member was given Ten (10) days to vacate because she purportedly owes $25.00 to the co-op. If she were to owe nothing to the co-op, she would have Thirty (30) days to vacate. It is not difficult to see how atrociously contrived this intended eviction is.
By-law 26 was specifically put in place because the neighbour didn't like the woman feeding stray cats, birds or squirrels. The By-law has now achieved its goal and to mark this special occasion, the Notice to Appear was joyfully delivered to the member just before the long Easter Weekend, a celebratory religious holiday for this member and her family.
This will be the sixth eviction recently attempted in our co-op. The last one was such a success that the Board of Directors and the Property Manager are clearly zealous about cleansing our co-op.
I want you to tell her to go in and record every word they say to her for her own protection. That's such BS. Anything to try and break ones spirit. Is there an actual law that you cannot feed birds? Which squirrels get into. Is there a law you cannot feed homeless animals/strays? If we neglected an animal/person that needed help and something happened to it or them, that could have been prevented, like starving an animal, do we not have a duty to try and help and protect those, or them who need it, or do we let them die or either away?
ReplyDeleteThe potential eviction is rigged - it's a test case to see how much they can get away this.
ReplyDeleteYou can't skip procedures in eviction cases or at least w/o not losing in Superior Crt. And co-ops cannot roll in Arrears eviction with other by-law infractions before LTD except to show a pattern of "bad behaviour." Presumably, even having been "trained" by CHF, I would have to think that LTB adjudicators will see thru such flim-flam attempts by co-ops.
ReplyDelete