We’ve all had this …. tenant leaves building with unpaid hydro bill – hydro takes payments made and reallocates to electrical services supplied and sticks landlord with water portion and under the Municipal Act can add to the tax roll of the property.
WELL I’VE HAD ENOUGH !
THE FOLLOWING CLAIM WAS FILED NOVEMBER 26TH AGAINST BARRIE HYDRO – COURT FILE 1842-09
The Plaintiff is the owner of a residential property at XXXXXXX Bradford Ontario
The Defendant, Barrie Hydro is the supplier of water and hydro services to the subject premises.
The Defendant supplied said services to the premises during the period of November 24, 2008 to July 07, 2009 inclusive.
The account for such services was in the name of one or more of the tenants of the building being either XXXXXXX or XXXXXXXl.
The tenant(s) defaulted on some or all of the payments due to Barrie Hydro for the period in question.
The Defendant subsequently claimed that there were no overdue amounts owing for hydro services but that all of the arrears, namely $ 562.28 applied to water and sewage services only and then applied under Section 398(2) to have the outstanding water and sewage arrears added to the tax roll of the property in question.
The Defendant relied upon the Plaintiff’s equity in the subject property to collect overdue monies owing by virtue of the Defendant’s negligence.
The Plaintiff claims the following –
1) That the Defendant has a fiduciary duty to the Plaintiff should the Defendant ultimately rely upon the Plaintiff’s equity to ensure that any services arrears are collected thereon.
2) The Defendant unlawfully applied monies paid on said account to current amounts of hydro charges while neglecting to apply payments to overdue portions of water and sewage charges.
3) The Defendant failed to conduct credit investigations prior to providing the services on behalf of the tenants.
4) The Defendant, in lieu of conducting credit investigations, failed to require a deposit from the tenants prior to providing services.
5) The Defendant failed to notify the Plaintiff of the amount and nature of any amounts that were overdue by the tenants but simply relied upon the Plaintiff’s equity as a collection source.
6) The Defendant failed to attempt to collect the overdue monies from the tenants.
7) The Defendant failed to solicit the assistance of the Plaintiff to contact and collect monies that the Defendant at all times knew would be charged against the Plaintiff’s equity in the property.
8) The Defendant at all times failed to perform their fiduciary duty and caused damages and costs to be incurred by the Plaintiff.
The Plaintiff claims actual damages in the amount of $ 562.28
The Plaintiff claims punitive damages of $ 9,000.00
……… STAY TUNED ! ……..
