Oakville couple says house sale at risk due to tenants that refuse to leave, Landlord and Tenant Board delays
CBC
An Oakville, Ont., couple say they are caught in a nightmare scenario because the people living in the downstairs apartment of their Mississauga investment home refuse to leave more than six months after they sold it — and there's little they can do.
Kashif and Salma Siddiqui say they stopped receiving rent payments for the unit in October, meaning they are owed $10,200 while bearing the costs of two homes as they wait for the case to be adjudicated at a backlogged Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).
And while the new buyers have agreed to push back the sale closing date twice, they are now threatening to sue if they don't get control of the detached home on Tacc Dr. in a vacant state by April 30.
"We are just stuck in between these people who are … occupying our home and those people who are the new buyers," said Salma Siddiqui. "We don't know what to do."
The dilemma highlights ongoing issues with the LTB, which is plagued by a monthslong backlog of cases that's causing major delays in the adjudication of landlord-tenant disputes.
According to the lease agreement, the Siddiquis rented the basement apartment in December 2020 to Alberto Almeda and his former wife for $1,700 per month.
Last summer, the Siddiquis decided to sell the home. They say they verbally informed both their upstairs and downstairs tenants in July of their intention to list it and, in August, signed a sales agreement with a closing date of Dec. 15.
According to documents filed with the LTB, the Siddiquis provided written N12 notice to the tenants on Sept. 22, and set the move-out deadline as Nov. 30.
An N12 is a form a landlord is required to issue to tenants under Ontario's Residential and Tenancies Act when they intend to have either themselves, a relative or a purchaser move into a rental unit. It requires a minimum of 60-days notice.
The upstairs tenants left at the end of October, and Almeda — who the Siddiquis say has been the main occupant of the apartment along with several members of his family since he and his former wife broke up — said he would vacate by the end of November.
"Until 29th of November, they were telling me that they will move out," said Kashif Siddiqui. "Then one day before, they just told me that they are not going to."
Since then, the Siddiquis allege Almeda has been verbally abusive, has damaged their property, including the washing machine, and hasn't paid any rent. Pre-dated cheques provided by his former wife at the beginning of the tenancy bounced because the bank "cannot trace" the account, financial documents show.
When contacted by CBC News, the woman said she left the apartment in July after divorcing Almeda, and directed questions about its occupancy and unpaid rent to him.
In phone and text message conversations, Almeda didn't directly answer questions and declined to be interviewed.
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