Family evicted from townhouse awarded $27.7K to be paid by the buyer after sale falls through

A family of four in Surrey, B.C., was recently awarded $27,717 from the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) after they were evicted in April 2022 when the townhouse they were renting was sold in a deal that was never completed.

The would-be purchaser was ordered to pay compensation of 12 months rent, the customary penalty for wrongful eviction, even though they weren't able to complete the subject-free sale because their financing didn't come through. They also lost a $30,000 deposit.

The tenants, Marcia Rubio and Oscar Hierro, say they're happy with the arbitration award, but they would have preferred to stay in the townhouse, which was close to their children's school and was $450 less in rent than where they are now, farther away in Langley. 

"We feel so frustrated," Rubio told CBC News. 

"It's crazy out there. We are so scared, so scared because [as renters] we don't have any stability, any security."

Rubio says she has yet to hear from the purchasers, Humaira Bashir and Shammas Cheema. 

Cheema, a Realtor who was added as a co-purchaser after the initial offer and therefore isn't named in the RTB decision, told CBC News he intends to appeal the decision. 

Cheema said he had warned the seller their financing might not come together and that the seller should have let the tenants know. 

"It is a very tricky situation because we already lost money," he said. "But at the end of the day, the court's decision will be respected."

The offer on the townhouse, according to the Residential Tenancy Branch decision, did not have any conditions on it, meaning the purchasers had to commit to the sale despite any financial or other concerns. 

Cheema said the housing market was so hot those types of offers were de rigueur at the time. But then the market turned, and despite his initial confidence in the ability to finance the mortgage along with a co-buyer, he wasn't able to make it happen. 

The deal collapsed at the 11th hour, according to Cheema and the RTB decision, and by then, the tenants had already moved out. 

Rubio said her son's birthday was at the end of the month, and the family decided to move sooner in order to celebrate it without the stress of an impending move. 

The decision says the onus to pay the fine is on the would-be buyer — because they requested the landlord issue the two months' notice to end the tenancy.