Penticton Herald - Smoking Tenants Ruling by B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Harvey

 

"A Coquitlam family of three has successfully overturned a ruling which upheld their landlord’s eviction over a cigarette smoking dispute.

On April 8, B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Harvey found the Residential Tenancy Branch’s (RTB) November 2023 decision to ratify a one-month eviction notice against Kurban Malik, Rashna Malik, and Sabrina Malik lacked sufficient legal grounding.

He said the landlord and the RTB failed to clearly establish the smoking amounted to a “significant interference or unreasonable disturbance” to other tenants. 

“Both the petitioner and the court are left to guess about how and why the RTB arbitrator reached the decision,” Harvey said. “I find that the reasons … are inadequate and that the decision, including the order to vacate and order for possession, must therefore be set aside.”

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Attempt to evict Coquitlam tenants for smoking gets stubbed out after BC Supreme Court challenge | Spare News | pentictonherald.ca