A Brampton, Ont., couple is relieved to have access to their home back finally, 11 months after a tenant stopped paying his rent and utility bills soon after he was asked to move out.
“This is what I was waiting for,” said Yvonne Folkes inside her reclaimed Brampton home on Friday.
“A clean slate.”
Folkes and her husband notified the tenant in writing they wanted him to leave almost a year ago, citing their intention to move back into the home. Once they did that, he stopped paying rent and utilities — but refused to leave.
“We were at the point where we almost lost the house because we have to pay the mortgage while he’s in the house not paying rent, not paying utilities,” she told Global News.
“It was just very hard. Financially stressful, mentally, physically, emotionally — everything,” Folkes said, describing an ordeal involving the family’s only rental property, located a couple of blocks from where they were living.
The tenant, Hermann Founiapte Dakono, was paying about $3,200 a month in rent. Folkes described him as originally a “good tenant” until he was served notice to move out.
As Global News discovered in May, Founiapte was adamant he wouldn’t leave until he was forced to do so.
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“Why (do) I have to leave? You cannot come and tell me,” Founiapte told Global News during an interview on the driveway that took place after he made a 911 call to police to complain about the presence of the television news crew outside.
Founiapte explained that he would leave eventually once his family’s new home in Hamilton was ready for occupancy in the fall.
In the meantime, the tenant employed a number of delaying tactics to postpone an eviction order. These included asking for a landlord and tenant tribunal board hearing in French, even though he had been communicating at all times with Folkes and her legal counsel in English.
“Unfortunately, everything that he did use was given to him by the Landlord and Tenant Board,” said paralegal Joey Rizzuto, who has represented Folkes and her husband for the past eight months.
“If someone knows what they’re doing they do have the ability to delay the process,” said Rizzuto, who said Founiapte likely could have lived rent-free for another few months even though he’d been served an eviction order that took effect September 20.
In Ontario, a legal eviction can only be carried out by a local Sheriff who is authorized to enforce an eviction order. There is a significant backlog of cases in Peel Region, where Brampton is situated.
Founiapte elected to move out voluntarily just as the eviction order took effect.
Global News asked Founiape, the tenant, for an interview, but he declined.
“No…because I don’t trust you, that’s the reason,” he said in a phone call, referring to Global News’ original reporting on the issue.
The owner of Hermann Trucking in Etobicoke claimed Folkes “didn’t do what she’s supposed to do as a landlord” and said he plans to pursue two claims with the Landlord and Tenant Board.
Founiape said he didn’t leave Folkes’ property because of the eviction order, but because “my house was ready, that’s why I left.”
Founiape said in May he was having a home constructed and would move out when it was completed.
As for the $32,000 in unpaid rent and utilities, he said he’d pay if ordered to do so.
“I owe the money,” Founiape said.
After almost a year of dealing with the system that governs landlords and tenants, Folkes says the system needs reform.
“It needs to change a lot, ” said Folkes.
