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Emily Burton went before Ontario’s Landlord and Tenant Board to seek compensation for losses from a recurring bed bug problem.
Instead, the soft-spoken federal public servant was mortified to learn that LTB adjudicator Greg Joy believed she altered an invoice from a pest-control company by adding a sentence in an attempt to bolster her case.
Joy did not back down from his position, even though the owner of the company that treated her apartment informed the adjudicator, in an email two weeks before Joy’s decision was released, that he, not Burton, had added the sentence. Joy dismissed Burton’s claim on Nov. 13 and raised his suspicions again in his written decision.
Burton, who lived in an apartment on Somerset Street West for 22 years before she moved out last summer over the distress caused by the bed bugs, wants an apology from Joy. “It was horrible,” she says of her experience before the board.
She also has complained to Yasir Naqvi, her Ottawa Centre MPP and an Ontario cabinet minister.
In his decision, Joy wrote: “I find on a balance of probabilities that this invoice was altered in an effort to make it appear as though the bed bugs in the tenant’s unit were caused by the landlord neglecting to treat bed bugs in neighbouring units.”
Joy wrote the bugs were likely transported into Burton’s unit by her or a visitor, and that the landlord took reasonable steps to try to eradicate the problem.
Burton was seeking about $12,000 in damages, which included a $3,000 heat treatment of her apartment by a pest-control company she hired and costs related to hotel accommodation and money for furniture and clothing she says she had to discard.
When the Citizen tried to get Joy to offer an explanation for not trusting Burton, Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General said the LTB does not comment on its decisions.
In his decision, adjudicator Greg Joy said he found ‘on a balance’ of probabilities that an invoice from a pest control company was altered to suggest that a bed bug problem was due to a landlord’s negligence.
Burton first appeared before Joy on Sept. 23. She provided a report from Steeve Lemieux (who spells his first name with two “e”s), proprietor of Montreal-based Axiom Extermination. The pest-control company had twice used a heat-treatment system to go after the bugs in her apartment.
The report mentioned that the unit next door to Burton’s, which Lemieux says he was allowed to inspect by the tenant, had a “major infestation” of bed bugs. The infestation is also mentioned in a short sentence on Burton’s invoice: “I visit the (unit) 103 and she’s full of bed bug.”
Joy had the hearing reconvened on Oct. 29 after he asked Burton for the original copy of Lemieux’s invoice. Burton had originally supplied him with a photocopy.
There, Joy confronted her with his suspicion that the invoice from Lemieux had been altered to support her claim against her former landlord.
In an audio recording of the Oct. 29 proceedings, Joy, a former Canadian Olympian, suggests the sentence was added to the invoice, and that the writing was different and larger than other notations on the invoice. He also tells Burton he found the handwriting of the sentence similar to handwriting on her application for damages.
Joy also notes the sentence is in black ink while the rest of the remarks are in red. At one point during the exchange, paralegal Trevor Jacquard, representing the landlord, Serson Clarke Non Profit Housing Corp., blurts: “It seems like a fraud has been perpetuated on the board … That document has been tampered with.”
Burton protests that she did not write the line, noting its grammar errors. But Joy replies: “I find it highly suspect.”
Lemieux, at Burton’s request immediately after the hearing, provided an emailed statement for Joy, stating that the handwriting on the invoice was his only. Also at Burton’s request, he provided Joy with his copy of the invoice. It did not include the sentence that Joy believed Burton had added. In an email to the Public Citizen this week, however, Lemieux said he wrote the line on Burton’s invoice with a different pen after he was allowed to check the unit where he found the bed bug infestation.
Burton believes Joy, who in his decision acknowledged receiving Lemieux’s message, should have asked a handwriting expert for an opinion before making his public accusation.
Meanwhile, Jacquard says the landlord is planning to go after Burton to recover costs for unpaid rent and damage to the unit. The former tenant says she withheld her last three months’ rent — and informed the landlord she was doing so — because she hardly stayed in her apartment during that time.
Is something bothering you? Please contact: thepubliccitizen@ottawacitizen.com
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Instead, the soft-spoken federal public servant was mortified to learn that LTB adjudicator Greg Joy believed she altered an invoice from a pest-control company by adding a sentence in an attempt to bolster her case.
Joy did not back down from his position, even though the owner of the company that treated her apartment informed the adjudicator, in an email two weeks before Joy’s decision was released, that he, not Burton, had added the sentence. Joy dismissed Burton’s claim on Nov. 13 and raised his suspicions again in his written decision.
Burton, who lived in an apartment on Somerset Street West for 22 years before she moved out last summer over the distress caused by the bed bugs, wants an apology from Joy. “It was horrible,” she says of her experience before the board.
She also has complained to Yasir Naqvi, her Ottawa Centre MPP and an Ontario cabinet minister.
In his decision, Joy wrote: “I find on a balance of probabilities that this invoice was altered in an effort to make it appear as though the bed bugs in the tenant’s unit were caused by the landlord neglecting to treat bed bugs in neighbouring units.”
Joy wrote the bugs were likely transported into Burton’s unit by her or a visitor, and that the landlord took reasonable steps to try to eradicate the problem.
Burton was seeking about $12,000 in damages, which included a $3,000 heat treatment of her apartment by a pest-control company she hired and costs related to hotel accommodation and money for furniture and clothing she says she had to discard.
When the Citizen tried to get Joy to offer an explanation for not trusting Burton, Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General said the LTB does not comment on its decisions.
In his decision, adjudicator Greg Joy said he found ‘on a balance’ of probabilities that an invoice from a pest control company was altered to suggest that a bed bug problem was due to a landlord’s negligence.
Burton first appeared before Joy on Sept. 23. She provided a report from Steeve Lemieux (who spells his first name with two “e”s), proprietor of Montreal-based Axiom Extermination. The pest-control company had twice used a heat-treatment system to go after the bugs in her apartment.
The report mentioned that the unit next door to Burton’s, which Lemieux says he was allowed to inspect by the tenant, had a “major infestation” of bed bugs. The infestation is also mentioned in a short sentence on Burton’s invoice: “I visit the (unit) 103 and she’s full of bed bug.”
Joy had the hearing reconvened on Oct. 29 after he asked Burton for the original copy of Lemieux’s invoice. Burton had originally supplied him with a photocopy.
There, Joy confronted her with his suspicion that the invoice from Lemieux had been altered to support her claim against her former landlord.
In an audio recording of the Oct. 29 proceedings, Joy, a former Canadian Olympian, suggests the sentence was added to the invoice, and that the writing was different and larger than other notations on the invoice. He also tells Burton he found the handwriting of the sentence similar to handwriting on her application for damages.
Joy also notes the sentence is in black ink while the rest of the remarks are in red. At one point during the exchange, paralegal Trevor Jacquard, representing the landlord, Serson Clarke Non Profit Housing Corp., blurts: “It seems like a fraud has been perpetuated on the board … That document has been tampered with.”
Burton protests that she did not write the line, noting its grammar errors. But Joy replies: “I find it highly suspect.”
Lemieux, at Burton’s request immediately after the hearing, provided an emailed statement for Joy, stating that the handwriting on the invoice was his only. Also at Burton’s request, he provided Joy with his copy of the invoice. It did not include the sentence that Joy believed Burton had added. In an email to the Public Citizen this week, however, Lemieux said he wrote the line on Burton’s invoice with a different pen after he was allowed to check the unit where he found the bed bug infestation.
Burton believes Joy, who in his decision acknowledged receiving Lemieux’s message, should have asked a handwriting expert for an opinion before making his public accusation.
Meanwhile, Jacquard says the landlord is planning to go after Burton to recover costs for unpaid rent and damage to the unit. The former tenant says she withheld her last three months’ rent — and informed the landlord she was doing so — because she hardly stayed in her apartment during that time.
Is something bothering you? Please contact: thepubliccitizen@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
