Halifax man faces eviction following year of complaints to property management company

A Halifax tenant says he’s being evicted at the end of his fixed-term lease this month after making complaints for the past year seeking repairs to his apartment.

Ralph Pearson moved into the Stanley Park Apartments in the Cowie Hill neighbourhood of Halifax last November. He signed a one-year fixed-term lease and says he was told his unit was “move-in ready,” but since then he has been trying with little success to get a number of issues resolved.

“My main door doesn’t close properly, the kitchen sink was leaking, the spinner that spins at the bottom [of the dishwasher] was all melted [and] it was full of mould, my bedroom window leaks every time it rains,” Pearson said. “Things just keep happening.”

A few months after he moved in, his fridge stopped working and he had to throw out all of the food inside, he said.

He said he’s been in contact with the on-site manager since he moved in, but there’s been little in the way of help and what he did receive began only after he made contact with the municipality and the Residential Tenancies Program about four months ago.

“[The manager] came in and did some repairs but it took him quite a long time to actually do it,” Pearson said. “He was told by the city to fix it and just put a Band-Aid on it.”

He said only a few of his concerns have been addressed, with repairs made to the dishwasher and to leaky faucets in the kitchen and shower.

But issues remain with the loose front door and mould caused by the leaky bedroom window.

Pearson said he was recently served an eviction notice.

“When I signed the lease, [the manager] told me after the year I could go month to month. But that’s not the case now because he just don’t like it that I got the tenancy board involved,” Pearson said.

He’s still looking for a new place to live, which he said has been its own trial as he’s been off work since 2020 due to a work injury.

CBC News has reached out to Stanley Park Apartments and the on-site manager for comment and has not received a response.

Advocacy group says issue is common

Hannah Main, a community legal worker with Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, says Pearson’s situation is unfortunately fairly common.

“If it’s a one-year fixed-term lease, it ends for both parties unless both the landlord and the tenant decide to re-enter into that agreement,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of this from people who come into that legality. They would want to stay in the unit, but the landlord just decides, for whatever reason, that they would not want to renew the lease.”

Main said tenants ultimately don’t have any leverage if landlords refuse to renew an agreement with them after the end of their fixed term.

She said situations like Pearson’s are why her organization — and others like it — are calling for an end to fixed-term leases to better serve tenants.

“I personally would be happy if we didn’t have fixed-term leases at all, because what they’re allowing landlords to do is to evict without cause,” she said.

In some provinces, fixed-term leases automatically convert to a month-to-month contract after the initial term is over.

Main co-authored a recent report by Dalhousie Legal Aid based on a survey of more than 1,200 Nova Scotian tenants that showed fixed-term leases are becoming more prevalent.

The report said that half of tenants “reported having a problem with their landlord, building, or unit within the past year,” but of those who had a problem, a bit more than 40 per cent didn’t take any action and only 6.2 per cent reached out to the Residential Tenancies Program.

“This study shows that tenants’ issues in Nova Scotia are under-reported and often go unaddressed,” the report reads. “The result is a situation of chronic insecurity among tenants, many of whom endure substandard living conditions while fearing retaliation or eviction.”

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