Mostafa Said鈥檚 dream vacation to Egypt turned into a 鈥渃omplete nightmare鈥� when he and his family returned to find their home had been trashed by renters.
On Monday, Said鈥檚 five-year quest to receive compensation for the damage ended when Judge Thomas Woods of the B.C. provincial court ordered a Maple Ridge property management company to pay Said $25,000, the maximum amount that can be awarded in provincial small-claims court.
In 2005, Said began planning a one-year vacation with his wife and young children to Egypt, where Said was born.
After exploring his options, Said hired Meadow Ridge Classic Realty Ltd. 鈥� formerly HomeLife Classic Realty Ltd. 鈥� to manage his house and property in Maple Ridge.
The agreement was that while the Said family was out of the country, Meadow Ridge would find a tenant for the family home, collect rent and generally oversee the tenancy.
In return, Said would pay a fee based on the gross monthly rent generated while the family was gone.
The Saids left for Egypt in December 2005 and Meadow Ridge found a tenant, Sherri Fontaine, to live in the home with two other adults and three children from February 2006 until January 2007.
The judge found that Meadow Ridge carried out a 鈥渃ursory and inadequate鈥� evaluation of Fontaine鈥檚 suitability as a tenant, gathering too little information and ignoring red flags with her application. Fontaine had criminal record involving drugs and had been in the news when one of her children was mauled to death at home by dogs.
鈥淚n my judgment, if Ms. Fontaine鈥檚 application had been properly vetted she would have been quickly recognizable as a potentially unsuitable tenant and the problems that resulted from her tenancy at the family home could have been avoided,鈥� Woods wrote.
Serious problems began as soon as Fontaine moved into the house: Her first rent cheque bounced and she wouldn鈥檛 co-operate with Meadow Ridge when it tried to ensure that the utilities had been changed over.
Fontaine also began carrying out unauthorized and unnecessary modifications to the property 鈥� such as modifying the doors to bedrooms so that they could be sub-leased, painting, replacing flooring and doing work on the outside of the home 鈥� and asking to be compensated for them. Woods said the home did not need modifications and those that were made were 鈥済rotesque, unsightly and non-functional.鈥�
鈥淭hese red flags did not prompt closer scrutiny. Meadow Ridge persisted with a woefully inadequate pattern of monitoring of the family home 鈥� so inadequate that Ms. Fontaine was able to carry out wholesale renovations to the house and grounds without being detected,鈥� Woods wrote.
The house was in an obvious state of disrepair; so obvious that the District of Maple Ridge wrote to the resident of the home in January 2007 to request that debris be removed from the exterior of the home within 14 days. An inspection had revealed an accumulation of tires, metal, bike parts, three unlicensed vehicles and other miscellaneous items.
鈥淪ometime that month, Ms. Fontaine and her family vacated the family home, leaving the district鈥檚 order unfulfilled and Mr. Said鈥檚 property in what the evidence overwhelmingly establishes was a deplorable condition,鈥� Woods wrote.
Fontaine also failed to pay all of the outstanding rent.
鈥淲hen she was finished with it, the family home was barely habitable,鈥� Woods said.
Woods said Meadow Ridge breached the terms of the property management contract it had with Said and the breaches constituted gross negligence.
In addition to the $25,000, Meadow Ridge was ordered to pay interest beginning on Jan. 31, 2006, plus Said鈥檚 filing fees.
