Landlords faced with serious damage to their property caused by current or former tenants can find themselves in the unenviable position of not knowing whether to pursue compensation through the Residential Tenancy Branch (“RTB”) or the BC Supreme Court (the “Court”). We recommend obtaining legal advice at an early stage to ensure this often confusing process is navigated correctly.
While the enactment of Bill 7, Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act (“Bill 7”) on March 1, 2021 was said by then Attorney General David Eby to clarify when the RTB doesn’t have jurisdiction to deal with a dispute, the procedure is still anything but simple.
In the recent decision Choi v. Westbank Projects Corp., 2024 BCCA 410, the BC Court of Appeal has provided a welcome clarification of the complex rules governing jurisdiction over landlord-tenant disputes.
THE LAW PRIOR TO BILL 7
Until now the leading decision on this issue was Gates v Sahota, 2018 BCCA 375, which affirmed the following procedural rules:
- The RTB has exclusive jurisdiction over disputes covered by the Residential Tenancy Act (the “RTA”) when the amount claimed is within the maximum claimable in the Small Claims Court (currently $35,000).
- When the amount claimed in an RTA dispute exceeds this limit, anyone who wants the dispute to be heard in the Court must file a Petition (i.e., rather than a Notice of Civil Claim), with notice to the RTB.
- An RTA dispute within the small claims limit can be heard in the Court if it is “linked substantially” to a matter already before the Court. In these cases the action needs to be brought as a Petition, pending an application for a consolidation order.
- The RTB’s authority to order a landlord to make repairs to a rental unit is not subject to the small claims limit.
- Separate claims, each within the small claims limit, cannot be aggregated to avoid the RTB’s exclusive jurisdiction over such claims.
- Class action proceedings are not available in the Court to determine RTA disputes.
- When an RTA dispute is head in the Court, the Court may only make orders that the RTB could make.
… Read the full article here: Rental Damage Claims in British Columbia