Verica Grgic’s small Hamilton bungalow where she once raised her children was destroyed.
The hardwood floors are coated with dog poop and there are some moulds in the kitchen where the poop grows in the kitchen. The living room was scattered with items and trash, dog toys and a chaotic cat stall. The front wall and windows are sprayed with something that looks like blood. A spicy ammonia-like smell penetrates the house.
Grgic and her husband, Marinko Vrbanic, showed CBC Hamilton the status of their Stoney Creek House, and they did not pay more than $24,000 in rent after they obtained permission from the Ontario Landlords and Tenant Commission (LTB).
This is the order Grgic has been trying to get a full year. She provided the tenant with an N4 notice in early 2024, which applied to LTB in March of that year and received an eviction order in July, but then had to wait until last week to finally replace the lock.
“I’m not exaggerating – it’s the worst year of my life,” Grgic said. “I’m so disgusting. I’ll never believe it’s a real system, but I’ve learned to be realistic.”
Grgic said the contractors have identified plasterboard, flooring and sub-bottom lines and need to replace equipment, partly needing to replace the odor, exceeding the estimated $100,000.
The tenant did not respond to multiple calls, text messages, social media messages or emails to her, or sent her business last week and after the business, asking her to comment. CBC Hamilton also contacts the Ontario Tenant Advocacy Center (ACTO).
Acto’s Director of Advocacy and Legal Services Douglas Kwan Generally speaking, the norm for tenants not to pay rent is absent. He declined to comment on the specific situation.
Evicting of tenants who were previously found in LTB
For Grgic, 47, the experience made her spend more than she could.
She immigrated from Croatia to Canada, was a single parent of two and served as a personal support staff for a long time. 14 years ago, she bought a bungalow alone. When she and Vrbanic, 59, got married last year, they decided to live in his residence and rent her place.
“It’s actually a sense of value, not money,” he said.
Vrbanic said her reference was checked out after the tenant applied to rent it, although they did not view her credit history or requested LTB to provide any past decisions involving her. She paid for rent for the first time in November 2023 and last month. But from there, the situation unveiled, and rents were unpaid, Grgic said she watched her home be “destroyed”.
VRBANIC was later discovered on the website Open room – Crowdsourcing Online Order Database – Tenants were expelled from two other homes in Hamilton in 2020 and 2022 for not paying rent. According to these LTBs’ decisions, in each case, she owes the landlord more than $15,000.
Little landlord The whole province of Ontario In recent years, they have told CBC News that they have become victims of tenants who know how to use LTB to their advantage. The landlord says these tenants are interested Drag out the program For months, no rent was paid, and in some cases the property was destroyed.
A landlord in Oshawa said that even in A fire broke out inside. Another landlord in Ottawa was left to Holes in the wallthe lights and faucets were broken, the toilet was blocked, and other problems, tenants who had not paid rent for 11 months were finally deported.
Four different landlords in and around Ottawa suburbs said they have fallen victim to the same “professional” tenant who has been not renting rents for years. The homeowner said the couple raised nearly $100,000 in unpaid rent over four years.
Gridge said she could avoid “damage” to her home if she was allowed to evict tenants last summer. She said she was clamoring for information warning other small landlords about challenges in the system.
“No one cares,” she said. “You’re just alone.”
Animal welfare investigation is underway
Last August, tenants successfully asked the LTB to review the July eviction order because she said she didn’t know about the hearing, according to a final decision by the court last week.
The decision said the board had sent the hearing information to the law clinic email to help her resolve the case, but the tenant said she did not receive it.
The decision said the new hearing took place in late October, but the tenants were not attending either. The eviction order was reissued in November. The tenant also requested a review and wrote in a letter to LTB, which she did not receive, and would definitely be “homeless” if deported. The eviction order stayed again.
Grgic and Vrbanic said they sent hearing information to tenants via email.
Meanwhile, the condition of the house deteriorated rapidly, Grgic said. When they were worried about being attacked by three dogs inside, they encountered problems in conducting the inspection. Grgic said the dog and a cat stayed at home alone since around September.
The 86-year-old told CBC Hamilton that neighbor Josie Sorbara could hear dogs “barking all the time” and would see them slashing in the front window. Gridge said the neighbor also reported a dog fight to her and the front window was covered in blood.
Then there is the flood.
A tenant living in the basement informed Grgic as the water started to the pool on the ceiling.
Grgic and her husband entered the house with police, as captured in the video watched by CBC Hamilton. Provincial institutional animal welfare services temporarily fixed dogs so they could access indoors, Grgic said.
Vrbanic said they found a tube removed from under the sink in the bathroom and the faucet was left, causing water to seep into other rooms and the basement below.
“All the stool and peeing are mixed in the dog, through the ceiling, insulation, ventilation lights, lighting – it’s just a disaster,” VRBANIC said.
He said water and electricity must be turned off for safety reasons.
Under the LTB eviction order, the basement tenant moved out of the flood after the flood, and Grgic reoccupied the unit in February.
She said the dogs and cats continued to stay at the upstairs unit for a week until animal services took them away.
The province’s lawyers’ department that enforces animal welfare laws said that as of last week, the investigation was in progress and was inappropriate.
Accelerated listening request denied
Grgic tried to hold an expedited hearing on cases against main-level tenants in December, believing that without a house, she could not resolve flood losses such as mold and mold.
The request was denied.
“If the unit is damaged, there is no problem with the unit that the unit will become irreparable; it is already irreparable.”
The decision said the last hearing took place on March 18 and the tenants did not show up.
Grgic was allowed to replace the lock last week. She decided not to compensate for the losses in the small claims court because she won the compensation and she would be repaid.
The couple said their next step will be the gut. They will then wait to see if their insurance will cover any repairs as their case is currently under review. Otherwise, they will have to renovate it step by step, as Grgic did when he first moved in.
Besides that, unless the LTB changes to handle eviction cases, they don’t know if it will be rented again.
Advocates say the length of the LTB process is “unforgivable”
The Ontario court that oversees the LTB did not comment specifically on the case, but said in an email that more than half of the applications filed were evicting tenants accused of not paying rent.
Spokesperson Veronica Spada said in recent years, LTB has reduced the time it takes to get orders. In 2023, landlords usually have to wait eight to ten months for a hearing, and now they are waiting about three months.
If the tenant requests a review and requires a new hearing, or how long it takes for the judge to issue an order, the wait estimate is not taken into account.
Kathy Laird, a lawyer for the public interest group that monitors the province’s court system, said the LTB process still needs “unforgivable” time. Laird said waiting for a year is “bad, it’s not good at all.”
LTB is able to handle eviction cases from beginning to end within two months, Laird said before 2018. If the tenant misses the hearing, another hearing may be scheduled the next day.
She said that after the Doug Ford administration came to power in 2018, the remaining judges and “efficient” in-person hearings turned into virtual hearings amid the pandemic, all slowing down the process.
“It’s really hurting landlords and tenants.”
Laird noted that 40% of Ontario’s residents are tenants and the vast majority pay rent on time.
But LTB should be able to handle serious cases quickly so landlords can own them, perform repairs and find new tenants who need housing as soon as possible, Laird said.
“The quality of services in the courts has deteriorated surprisingly. Nothing works effectively.”
