One year later, still no residential tenancies enforcement unit in N.S.
CBC
Michaela Rutley has two legal decisions that say her former landlords must pay her more than $1,500 — but she doesn't know if she will ever see that money.
More than a year and a half after realizing her landlords charged her an illegal deposit and kept it when she moved out, Rutley has been through Nova Scotia's residential tenancies program and small claims court, but is struggling to enforce the rulings.
She has turned to local bylaw officers, sheriffs and police with no luck yet.
"It kind of just puts me in a loop with nowhere to go," she said in a recent interview.
Rutley is one of many tenants and landlords who go through the official channels to adjudicate rental disputes, then find themselves left with no resolution after months of effort.
For years, advocates for both landlords and tenants have been pushing for a dedicated unit to enforce residential tenancy orders or levy fines, saying the current process has no teeth.
A year ago, a consultant's report commissioned by the provincial government recommended this very thing — but so far no progress has been made on this front.
In November 2022, the Houston government began to look into the issue, hiring Halifax-based Davis Pier Consulting to study Ontario's enforcement system. The consultants were tasked to come up with a comprehensive program design detailing the scope, structure and costs of implementing something similar in Nova Scotia.
Last May, Colton LeBlanc, the minister responsible for the Residential Tenancies Act, confirmed to CBC News that his department had received the report. His department refused to release it publicly or discuss its contents.
In August, CBC obtained documents that showed the report recommended the creation of a residential tenancy compliance and enforcement unit similar to Ontario's, and that the unit should be in place by March 2024.
Last fall, LeBlanc said an enforcement unit is "on the radar" of his department, but it would not be meeting the timeline set out in the report.
LeBlanc declined an interview request. He was asked about progress on an enforcement unit in the legislature in February, but did not expressly say whether his department was going to follow the recommendations in the report.
"The silver bullet here for the residential tenancies program is not a compliance and enforcement unit," LeBlanc said. "The challenges we're experiencing today are not going to all be solved by a compliance and enforcement unit."
LeBlanc also said tenants and landlords may not understand how an enforcement unit would actually work.
