Twelve Truro families on one street kicked out in rash of evictions

Tomas Guinan had enough to worry about.

He just had another scope – his third of the year. There’s something growing in his colon and doctors aren’t sure whether it’s cancer. He’s hoping he’ll find out exactly what it is when he meets with his specialist later this month.

His colonoscopy was nearly two weeks ago. Three days later, he got a text on his phone telling him that he, his wife and two kids would be losing their home.

It was the new owners of the duplex that had been their home for the past five years, telling him to be out by Dec 1. The buyers were Venu Nallavemula and Srinu Mane. Mane would be moving into the other side of the duplex, the sister and her family would be taking theirs.

Except, it was an illegal eviction.

We’ll get to the reasons why later.

The Guinans aren’t alone. A dozen families on the same street are being moved from the six, tidy, white duplexes at the end of a cul-de-sac next to a park on Truro’s Hillcrest Avenue. Each are paying less than market rent and are losing their home for the same reason — new owners say they want to move in.

Back to Guinan’s case. He knew the eviction wasn’t legitimate. In Nova Scotia, someone can buy a rental property occupied by tenants and move in themselves. They can also evict to make room for a family member, but the definition of family is narrow — parent, spouse or child. A brother or sister doesn’t count. Besides, both men own residential properties in town. The new owners weren’t being clear about their relationship. In one email to the Guinans, Nallavemula said they were friends; in another text he said they were brothers.

Guinan stood his ground. He’s appealing the eviction. Last Tuesday, he visited Access Nova Scotia in Truro and filled out the paperwork for a tenancy board hearing. The hearing is scheduled for Dec 4.

He knows fighting with the new landlords could have consequences, but feels he has no choice. He’s also bothered that so many of his neighbours have lost their homes.

In his case, and his immediate neighbour’s, families are being displaced for fewer tenants, he believes. Guinan figures that just adds to the housing crisis.

“There needs to be some stricter rules,” said Guinan. “There has to be a better way to close the loopholes for places that have existing tenant. It has to be more difficult (to evict) than for someone to say, ‘Hey, you’re out on your butt.’”

We reached Nallavemula by phone but he said he would not comment on the evictions.

Hillcrest Avenue is a small part of a bigger story being played out across Nova Scotia.

Tammy Wohler, a Nova Scotia Legal Aid lawyer, said last month she’s worried by what she calls “the exploitation of the Residential Tenancies Act provisions that allow landlords to evict existing tenants in favour of a landlord’s family member.

“The protections are in the Act but some recent small claims court decisions seem to have broadened the rights of landlords, such that ‘corporations’ have been permitted to evict tenants so that a family member can move into the unit. Investment property owners should not be permitted to use the family provision as a loophole to evict tenants….The context and evidence need to be carefully considered to ensure landlords do not use these provisions as an easy way to evict.”

There were other things wrong with Guinan’s eviction. First of all, a specific process must be followed before a new landlord or a family member can move into an occupied rental unit. Under the Tenancies Act, the eviction notice is supposed to come from the landlord selling the property. The form is to be signed by the old landlord and be accompanied by a sworn affidavit from the new owner. The affidavit states the new owner, or a family member of the purchaser, intends in good faith to occupy the property.

In the Guinans’ case, the new owners sent him a regular eviction notice by text, with no affidavit, a day after the minimum 60-day notice period had passed. It said that a sister and her family were going to move in. Nallavemula told the couple in a followup text that the new occupants would also include his mother.

Now, the Guinans are scrambling to find another home. They pay $1,400 a month for the four-bedroom duplex. They can’t find anything for close to that in Truro.

They’d been trying to save up for a down payment. Now, they’ll probably see their monthly rent double.

Shannon Guinan says they may have to move into her parents’ basement.

Jeff Penney’s experience mirrors the Guinans’ ordeal. He’s been living in another duplex on Hillcrest for six years. The new owner let him know by email that he was getting kicked out. He got the same eviction notice that Guinan received on the same day. No affidavit. The owners Neeraj Goli and Sneha Sathala are married and would be living in one unit. Sathala’s mother would be moving into Penney’s home. The eviction notice states that Goli’s wife is pregnant and only that “in-laws are coming” to support them.

Penney’s also challenging the eviction with the tenancies board. He has two children who live with him half the time.

“There has to be a better way to close the loopholes for places that have existing tenant.”

– Tomas Guinan

We spoke with Goli, who said he sent the wrong form by accident. He said his wife is pregnant and that her mother is coming from India to help the couple. He said his mother-in-law has a proper visa to move here and will likely come at the end of November. He said he sent the regular eviction notice and affidavit on the advice of his lawyer, who had sent him a link to the wrong form.

“I’m a first-time buyer and I wasn’t aware of the rules,” said Goli. “I apologized to the tenant.”

Others on the street appear to have been evicted, in keeping with the tenancies act.

That’s not much comfort, though.

Kyle Black and his wife moved into their duplex just after Christmas. For the six years before that, they’d lived in his father-in-law’s basement. They got an eviction notice a couple of weeks after getting married in August.

The couple have a seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter. They must be out by Halloween. A man and his mother are moving in.

The Blacks pay $1,450 a month. They have not found a new home.

Trevor Warren and his family moved into their unit, just a few doors down, last spring. He had lost his previous home for the same reason he’s losing this one. The property was sold and the owner wanted to move in. He received his eviction notice the last week of August. The notice says that two people purchased his unit and will be moving in.

Warren lives with his wife and has three children, two live at the home. He hasn’t found a place yet, either.

“It’s awful,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. We don’t know what we’re doing exactly.”

He said the day after he moved into the duplex, there was a For Sale sign in the front yard.

SaltWire spoke with the former owners of the string of duplexes, Doug and Jane Landsberg. The couple were in the neighborhood last week to return a damage deposit.

They said they did nothing wrong and that they sold the properties because they are retiring.

“We gave them proper notice,” said Jane Landsberg. “They have got places to go, as far as I know.”