Tenant doesn’t pay $41,000 in rent for Toronto condo, but landlord can’t evict her yet
Narinder Singh of BramptonOnt., said he and his wife bought their Etobicoke condominium as a retirement investment.
“We worked for decades to save penny by penny for our old age,” said Singh, who runs a dry cleaning business out of a Brampton supermarket.
But since 2020, Singh claims the tenant has only paid intermittently: He produced a ledger showing that Deeqa Rafle owes $41,600 in unpaid rent and $5,249.35 in unpaid utilities.
In the meantime, she still lives in Singh’s 32nd-floor apartment, just steps from Lake Ontario on the west shore.
According to Singh, for the first nine months she lived in the apartment, Rafle paid the monthly rent of $2,600 on time. Then, for seven months, starting in December 2020, she was late on her payments.
She then made payments for 19 consecutive months, but missed payments for seven more months, according to Singh’s records.
In 2021, Singh applied to the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board for permission to evict Rafle.
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“The system is so broken,” Singh told Global News, expressing frustration at the difficulty of removing a tenant who doesn’t regularly pay their rent.
In 2023, Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube described the Landlord and Tenant Board’s “excruciating delays.” In a report, Dube acknowledged that his office received more than 4,000 complaints — largely from landlords — during its investigation. Dube made 61 recommendations aimed at improving the board’s operations.
In May, Global News reported on the case of a Brampton couple who were owed more than $22,000 by a tenant who refused to make further payments after being asked to leave the family home when he wanted to return.
In this case, the tenant and his partner have not made any payments since October 2023.
The Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board has not made a decision on the eviction, although another hearing is scheduled for late August.
On August 7, Singh received the news he had been hoping for: Landlord and Tenant Board member Tiffany Ticky signed an order requiring Rafle to pay the full amount she owes for unpaid rent and utilities.
“If the tenant does not pay the amount required to cancel this order, he must vacate the rental unit no later than August 18, 2024.”
However, Rafle can still try to appeal the decision. Even if she doesn’t, Singh will have to ask the court’s enforcement office, also known as the sheriff’s office, to carry out the eviction. That agency is also behind schedule.
Singh says the rental experience left a lasting impression on him. He says once his tenant moves out, he will likely sell the apartment, as he will never rent again.
“I am aware of the housing crisis in the country, but if people are here to abuse the law, go get your own, I am not a babysitter, I cannot help you.”
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
