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We are the owners of a duplex at 734 Chemong Road in Peterborough and we're facing challenges with our tenant that exceed what any person should be expected to deal with..
Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) Order FILE NUMBER: LTB-L-013110-24 details Tenant Norma-Lynn Pollock vs. Landlord Lorinda Seward (Frudd) and Jason Seward
On September 10, 2023, our tenant was arrested for assault with a weapon against one of her guests, leading to her being ordered to vacate the property, though her guests stayed behind.
Subsequently, our downstairs tenants reported feeling unsafe due to frequent police visits to the upper unit and unauthorized smoking, which led them to move out. We also discovered that the police had visited the property 11 times between July 22 and September 26, 2023.
On September 18, our tenant suspended the hydro, breaching her lease and risking damage to the property. Our downstairs tenants decided to leave by the end of October, citing the unsafe environment. We hired a paralegal to apply for eviction, but the Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) scheduled our hearing for December 7, 2023, and later adjourned it to January 29, 2024, at the tenant's request.
Our tenant filed a T2 application against us, claiming we illegally locked her out. This delayed proceedings further, and both applications were ultimately deferred to March 18, 2024, and again to April 5, 2024. During our six-hour hearing, it was clear that our tenant has a vendetta against us. Despite a final order dated May 6, 2024, for her to pay $15,096 or vacate by May 31, she did neither.
On June 3, 2024, we registered our eviction, only to find out that our tenant had applied for, and was granted a stay by the LTB, claiming that the adjudicator erred in considering evidence.
The house has since become a known drug house, with continuous police presence and ongoing criminal activities.
On June 11, 2024, our tenant was arrested on our property again and charged with mischief for significantly damaging our house. Five people, including our tenant, have been arrested there in the last 6 weeks. Our tenant owes $16,700 in arrears and continues to exploit the system, causing extensive property damage and theft, for no other reason than because she can.
We are in financial distress, with only three more mortgage payments in our line or credit. The tenant's actions and the LTB's inaction are pushing us to the brink, and we urgently need a resolution to save our property.
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The Sewards have put up a website that further details the situation in written, video, and picture format at https://getourtenantout.com.
Lorinda was featured on the CBC - The National in May 2024 about this situation. Openroom Co-Founder, Weiting Bollu, was also featured within and that was how Weiting had met Lorinda to continue to talk about her story.
Want to get in contact with Lorinda? You can do so at getourtenantout@gmail.com.
Lorinda Seward has an Masters Degree in Cultural Studies with a specialization in Gender and Social Justice Studies from Trent University.
As a Research Assistant at Trent University, her approach is guided through a feminist lens as she conducts literature reviews and synthesizes complex research data. Guided by the feminist research principle of connecting personal experiences to broader social and political frameworks, Lorinda's research is largely centered around gender-based violence.
As a Small Landlord, she went through the experience of a tenancy dispute and now shares her experience with others.
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