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Nightmare tenants evicted after leaving Ottawa landlord, neighbours in fear
Though a judge ruled to evict the tenant and her fiancé on July 10, she gave them until Aug. 10 to move out.
Nightmare tenants evicted after leaving Ottawa landlord, neighbours in fear
Though a judge ruled to evict the tenant and her fiancé on July 10, she gave them until Aug. 10 to move out.
Author of the article:
Gary Dimmock
Publishing date:
Jul 25, 2020 • Last Updated 14 hours ago • 3 minute read
They’re the worst tenants Chun-Yu Lu has ever had.
They subjected the landlord to threats and racial slurs, and they had a lot of snakes. They kept some 30 snakes — including pythons — throughout the apartment in containers without lids. One snake was kept in an entertainment wall unit.
Fearing the pythons, other tenants have moved out of the Goulburn Avenue building, leaving the landlord in the lurch for around $4,000 a month. The tenants feared the pythons would get loose and enter their apartments through the ventilation system or plumbing.
These events are detailed in a July 10 Ontario Superior Court order to evict the tenants.
The landlord, who feels terrorized, has been trying to evict the couple for months. Lu felt the snakes posed a danger to other tenants and he’d had enough of the threats and racial slurs. (Texts and voicemail messages were filed in court.)
He first petitioned the Landlord and Tenant Board, and, because there’s a COVID-19 ban on evictions beyond urgent cases, he had to get a Superior Court judge to endorse the eviction.
Though Justice Sally Gomery ruled to evict Katelyn Boudens and her fiancé, Sean Salisbury, she gave them until Aug. 10 to move out.
“I feel very helpless,” Lu told this newspaper.
After going through all proper legal avenues, he figured the problem tenants would be evicted straight away, but they’re still living in his building. “It’s been months. I honestly thought the system would help me.”
Lu is too afraid to check in on his own building and doesn’t know if the pythons have been removed.
The tenants moved in back in March. Lu owns the building and maintains it.
He now only goes to the building if problems are serious, like leaking pipes. The last time he fixed leaky pipes, he had to call Ottawa police for an escort to his own property out of fear of the tenants.
“It’s chaos. I am struggling,” Lu said.
The “urgent” eviction order was granted because the couple’s occupancy risked the safety of other tenants in the building by “keeping dangerous snakes in unsecured enclosures (and) that the occupant (Salisbury) was “very unlikely” to comply with a conditional order requiring him to find a new home for his snakes or to take any direction respecting the snakes.”
The eviction order noted that other tenants in the building were “even more vulnerable than usual … (because some) must stay at home as a result of current public health directives.”
The landlord testified he feared for his safety.
Lu told court Salisbury threatened him, saying he knows where he lives and he would sexually assault him and his family.
The court also heard audio of threatening voicemail messages from Salisbury to his landlord, as well as text messages barbed with racial slurs.
The eviction court hearing also heard evidence that Salisbury was arrested in late June by Ottawa police on a slew of charges, including pointing a firearm at a security guard. (Police confirmed the arrest in a media release.)
Boudens told the hearing that, while her fiancé had been arrested, she noted none of the charges had been proved in court. She also said Salisbury was no longer living with her at the Sandy Hill apartment.
The judge said: “I do not find these reassurances very satisfying. The tone and content of Mr. Salisbury’s statements to Mr. Lu give rise to legitimate concerns for his safety, whether or not Mr. Salisbury continues to live at the apartment or is found guilty of the criminal charges he now faces.”
Even in the absence of these threats, Gomery found the eviction was warranted based on the safety of other tenants.
For now, the hardworking landlord says he’s living in “chaos” until Aug. 10, eviction day for the worst tenants he’s ever had.
gdimmock@postmedia.com
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