LaSalle—A bailiff handed another eviction notice directly to a tenant at the low-cost seniors’ residence at 760 Gamelin last Tuesday. This time, the notice came with an English translation.
“Eviction notices come from the bailiff, but our policy is to send a translation with the French version,” said OMHM spokesperson Louise Hébert. “Normally, that’s the way we do things, but this time we made a mistake and so we had to correct it.”
The tenant prefers that the OMHM simply revoke the $5 claim that led to the eviction.
Since last week, the Suburban has obtained the claim form signed by OMHM representative, Patrizia Del Vecchio and submitted to the Quebec rental board on June 9. The claim covers June’s rent and a $5 unpaid parking fee in May. Since the parking fee was more than three weeks late, the tenant faced eviction.
The tenant bought a bank draft for$412 (covering the $346 plus a $66 rental hearing fee) on May 31 from the Toronto Dominion Bank, which sent it to the OMHM. It wasn’t cashed until August 15.
The tenant had receipts to prove payment in May, June and July, but didn’t attend the hearing on July 18, as we outlined in our story last week. Since then, the Suburban has obtained a 12-page copy of the OMHM official notes of telephone calls. No calls appear in June and only one entry shows for July 12. Every single entry shows calls created and modified on the same day save one. The note for July 12 was created on July 12 and modified on September 20, when Hébert says Del Vecchio added a period to one of the sentences.
A nine-page computer print-out of the tenant’s OMHM finances was obtained by the Suburban. It shows a June 28 payment on July 8, prior to the rental board hearing in July. Hébert says that the hearing wasn’t cancelled when this payment was received, because the tenant in question frequently pays late.
The financial record does show a few late payments, but it also shows advance payments.
Other than the July case, only one rental board decision has appeared against this tenant. At a hearing in February, housing officials claimed $341 in back rent. The tenant proved the account was paid in full, save for a $13 discrepancy less than three weeks old. Since then, the tenant has purchased money orders to be sent to the rental board by the bank.
Similar incidents have occurred before. Another LaSalle resident living in the 1509 Shevchenko building successfully fought eviction in August 2007 by proving that he owed only $363, which was a portion of his then current month’s rent, rather than $704 over two months as OMHM employees claimed.
The bailiff still holds an order to forcefully evict the tenant.
(This article appeared in the city edition of the Suburban yesterday.)
