A woman and her 89-year-old mother facing eviction, after someone was caught on video trashing a neighbour’s parcel, has turned to the courts for help in saving her Downtown Eastside home of 30 years.
The tenant, Chuen (Amy) Cho, says it’s not her on the security video, but her sister. And she had no knowledge of her sister opening the package in front of the mailboxes, looking inside and then placing the opened package into the recycling bin, according to a petition asking the courts to review a decision by B.C.’s residential tenancy branch.
Cho was given an eviction notice by the Mavis McMullen Housing Society in August, which was upheld by a branch adjudicator in September.
The housing society, whose mission statement is to “provide stable, affordable housing for low-income women,” including disabled and older women, in the Downtown Eastside and east Vancouver accuses Cho of stealing the package, illegal activity that breaches the tenancy agreement.
It also said the tenant had received written warnings about “theft and behaviour” in the past, including someone from her unit allegedly taking empty bottles and cans from other tenants’ patios.
Cho’s mother does collect bottles and cans “but denies taking anything from other tenants,” the petition says. Cho doesn’t recall the letter or the landlord addressing it.
Neither Cho, 62, nor her mother — who’s 89, has a disability and has lived with Cho since 2006 — speak or read English, but speak Cantonese, according to the petition.
The landlord communicates and corresponds in English and tenants are responsible for translating, “despite the landlord’s obligation” under the B.C. Human Rights Code that requires it not discriminate because of race and other grounds, according to the petition.
The eviction letter was in English and the landlord did not translate it nor did he tell her there was a deadline to dispute it, it said.
The petition said the security footage does not show Cho but her sister, who does not live with her and “does not look like Ms. Cho (both are Chinese).”
Cho’s daughter viewed the footage and told the building manager the woman in the footage was her aunt.
It’s unclear why the landlord “ever asserted that Ms. Cho was caught on camera when the footage clearly show someone other than Ms. Cho,” the petition said.
The petition also said Cho wasn’t aware of her sister’s activity, “had no reason to suspect her sister” would do that and that she “has no history of theft of any kind.” The sister regularly visits her mother and she hadn’t collected their mail before and Cho has never asked her to.
The petition is asking a judge to set aside a Sept. 20 decision eviction decision and a review decision on Oct. 2 by a different adjudicator.
Cho alleges the landlord’s possession order was “obtained by fraud” in part because Cho had sworn an affidavit that she didn’t steal the package and the petition used that as grounds to evict, it said.
It said the branch decision should be reviewed by a judge because it is patently unreasonable.
A residential tenancy branch guideline states the arbitrator has to determine whether the tenant knew or ought to have known a guest may commit an illegal activity, based on what a “reasonable person” would be expected to know, it said.
By ignoring that guideline, the branch “makes Ms. Cho culpable for her sister’s activity” when she said she didn’t know it took place, it said.
The other behaviour the landlord cited as reason for eviction was Cho yelled at staff and her daughter confronted another tenant on a scooter who hit Cho’s mother, leaving her with a back injury and broken bones, for which she spent two months in hospital.
Cho admits she was upset and trying to get her point across in broken English while trying to get the landlord and the other tenant to pay her mother’s medical bills after the accident, but she wasn’t aggressive.
Messages requesting comment were left with Cho’s lawyer and with the Attorney General Ministry.
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