SCAMMER not paying up!
 

Greetings fellow members,

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this message.
-I have searched this forum thoroughly and have found many excellent advices from you guys about dealing with SCAMMERS
-hoping your expertise can shed some light on my issue at hand.

-My parents rented out their house in Surrey to an 80 year old lady, starting March 1st 2015

-Contracts signed and agreed by both parties

-2 weeks ago, the received cheque (rental payment for March) bounced.

-Parents checked up on the cheque received for the rental DEPOSIT, it bounced as well.

-Parents issued a notice to the tenant for her to pay within 5 days.

-5 days later, the tenant tells my parents she needs more time

-->parents issued her an eviction notice on the spot

-Tenant owes the Deposit and the rental payments for March and April.

-Tenant has NOT registered with the Fortis/BC HYDRO to make payments, did not pay for water/electricity/heating all this time

-Parents wants the tenant out immediately

-from what parents now know and understand, the tenant is experienced with The RTO rules and is using it to scamming people.

Telling her to leave is not an eviction notice.
If she knows how it work, she is well aware that the actually evict someone from your property can take a very long time. A friend of mine went through this with a place she owned.

Took her 6 months and loads of paperwork to get her formally evicted from the residence.

Best of luck but if she has done this before your in for a crazy ride :(

If your parents have not already, fill this out and serve her with it.

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/DownloadAs...8C2C1F0A941D9B

Sounds like you got hit by a squatter.. every landlord's worst nightmare.

They know how to play the game, and they just jump from place to place for a few months here and there, knowing it takes time for the landlords to get all the legal work done to evict them. Not to mention you can't legally cut off their power, etc.

My uncle's been hit by one of these guys before too, and it's just a big headache. They didn't get him out for 6+ months.

Hope you can get this resolved soon.

Hello BoostedBB6,

My parents gave her an eviction form. From my understanding, the police may not get involved, neither would any lawyers.

Wow, my thoughts was cut off hydro and power. Even though a contract has been signed, no payments were received since all the cheques bounced. Land lords really has the short end of the stick in tenancy laws.FailFish

Police wouldn't get involved because "technically" she's not breaking any rules. If she's not violent, destructive, noisy, etc, they would just tell you to take it up with the RTO.

If they did not use that form for this situation it would be easy for her to keep living there as the proper forms were not filled out.

That is the one they need to use. She has till 1pm on the date on the notice to leave. If she does not leave (which if she is a squatter she wont) then you need to get legal action involved. This can take a long time to do and can/will result in her being removed by Police if necessary.

Yeah it's a really unfortunate situation. Basically as soon as you make the place inhabitable (cut off their hydro, change the locks, etc), you're actually doing more harm than good to your case. And if she knows the rules as well as you can only assume she does, then she can actually use that to fight back in court.

Your parents will most likely have to file a direct request and get all there paperwork done. and spend a considerable amount of time fighting if shes experianced.

Direct Request - Dispute Resolution

In before someone recommends emailing her dean....

Yea, my parents has never dealt with this kind of thing before, they just want the scammer tenant to get out asap. Like what kind of world are we living in? living at someone's place without paying rent; while being PROTECTED by the law for doing so....:rukidding:

I will follow through with the link that you have provided asap, thankyou!

Well, considering the old lady scammer is 80 years old...I wouldn't think her dean would even be alive right now..FailFish

Do you know who is registered at Fortis/BC Hydro at that address at this moment?

If it is still under your parents name, can you call Fortis and ask them to cut service because you aren't living there at the moment? I'm assuming that your contract doesn't include providing utilities right?

Called up Fortis and the service is still registered under my parent's name. So this is another surefire sign that the scammer tenant has no intentions to pay for anything right from the get-go.

I am not sure if Fortis can cut the power to the house from their end, but I will call in and try asking.

Question - and not trying to rub it in now - but did you parents check previous rental references for this tenant? If I'm about to let somebody reside in a piece of property that I own it's something I would be all over.

Did not do the reference or the credit check.

Apparently, my parents are really naive and trusting on people's words. At the time, the scammer tenant produced papers, stating that she has money in her bank, has a good annual income and has a pension plan.

In retrospect, those papers could have easily been forged. The scammer had her accomplices (all middle aged ladies) come with her to view the house and act all interested. References could have been faked too. What I think is happening is that the scammer knows the rules inside and out and chooses not to make payments even though she has the funds to do so.

first thing get your parents to cut off the hydro and gas since its not in the contract. Then as everyone else said you are kinds fucked for now

you must be new here...

Just out of curiousity, what's stopping them from giving you fake references (ie: a friend of theirs to lie for them saying they're good renters)?

Yup, they could have easily have friends lie for them. And also, doing a credit check is important for any landlord, but in this case... I believe her credit check would clear and everything would look legit. Problem is that she's playing with the rules and not paying up the rent.

She gave my parents bs excuses saying oh she used the wrong account/bank.

Update: my dad saw a Moving company truck outside the house, and the guy in the truck approached my dad. Turned out that the old lady scammer got the moving company to move her stuff into the house, and paid them with a Cheque that ALSO bounced..

have you tried googling her name to see if anything came up about being a scammer?

Some peoples grandmas

Have RS meet at grandmas

/thread

http://www.educationexperts.net/anna/china5.gif

Stop payin for hydro at that address, just let the amount go into over due. I believe within 90 days of non payment hydro will actually go n cut power, same with gas, they'll lock up the main line at the meter. She "should" leave by then, that's when u pay up the overdue charges before being sent to collections. Technically the rent doesn't include hydro or gas so she should be payin for it, n I highly doubt she'll pay for the overdue charges just to get it reconnected.

3months vs 6months u choose

Just a little more information please:

1) What was the tenancy period? Month to month? A year? 6 months?

2) Have you documented the written notices that you've given them? Notice to pay or vacate, notice to vacate, etc.

You need to get on with a dispute resolution as soon as possible. The sooner you do it, the sooner you will be able to get your Order of Possession.

The key for you with this dispute resolution will be to ensure that you've given proper notice and have given them the statutory time frame to act on the notice.

You might want to use the Proof of Service form found on the BC Residential Tenancy website.