Landlord and Tenant Forums: By Landlords For Landlords

A serial bad tenant who failed to meet a recent deadline to pay her rent set by a Superior Court judge has been granted two more weeks to produce what she owes.

Nina Willis appeared at Osgoode Hall court Thursday. She is appealing a Landlord and Tenant Board decision to evict her from a Don Mills home for failing to pay rent.

Willis alleges in court documents she was ordered out because of a “factual error” at the hearing and because she didn’t have an “opportunity to participate.” Her landlord, Darius Vakili, is trying to have the appeal quashed.

In court, Willis promised — just as she did before a different Superior Court judge one week earlier — she would pay the $8,250 she owes.

“I do want to pay. I have to pay because that has nothing to do with my case,” said Willis, who told the judge she was prepared to pay most of what she owned on Thursday. “If someone pushes me I access my rights.”

Justice Thea Herman said there was “no dispute” Willis has failed to pay rent, but it wasn’t clear if her appeal was “utterly devoid of merit.”

Herman told Willis to pay $8,250 by June 21, by certified cheque or money order to her landlord’s lawyer, David Strashin. She must also pay $1,650 rent each month. Failure to do one or both means Strashin can have her appeal quashed.

“Ms Willis has the right to appeal but she does not have the right to live rent-free pending the appeal,” said Herman.

Last week, a hearing arranged to examine the validity of Willis’s appeal was adjourned. Willis had alleged a “conflict of interest” in part because Strashin represented three of her previous landlords.

At that hearing, Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel warned she must pay $8,250 to Vakili and present a recognized legal argument by Thursday or face consequences in court.

Willis promised to pay and said she intended to get a lawyer.

By Thursday she had failed to make any payments and arrived at court alone.

Strashin said, in his experience, Willis uses protections at the board and delays evictions in court as “long as she possibly can” without paying rent. If she finds a new home she stops coming to court, he said.

“No appeal she has ever filed has been prosecuted beyond this stage,” he said.

Willis blamed missing the deadline on Strashin not delivering documentation, media attention and the cost of preparing for a preliminary hearing for fraud charges, or allegations she provided bad cheques and faked employment information.

Willis also said she was “amongst the situation at the Eaton Centre,” alluding to a fatal shooting that took place in a food court on Saturday, June 2, and lost work days as a result.

Willis, who habitually fails to pay her landlords and abuses protections at the Landlord and Tenant Board to delay her evictions, was the subject of a Star investigation in early May.

Willis typically loses her cases in front of the board and often appeals the decision, resulting in an appearance before an appeals court.

The Star used court records and interviews with past landlords, lawyers and paralegals to confirm Willis has been ordered out of at least six homes since 2005.

Board hearings are open to the public, but unlike cases before the courts, privacy legislation means landlords have no access to previous decisions.