Court File and Parties

CITATION: Galeano v. Bradley Court Limited, 2022 ONSC 512

DIVISIONAL COURT FILE NO.: 921/21

DATE: 20220124

SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE – ONTARIO

DIVISIONAL COURT

RE: CARLOS ARTURO GALEANO, JR. v. BRADLEY COURT LIMITED

BEFORE: D.L. Corbett J.

HEARD: January 6, 2022, by ZOOM videoconference, at Toronto

Endorsement[^1]

[1] The court confirms the motion for an extension heard January 6, 2022, which the court decides as follows.

[2] The motion is granted and a stay of enforcement of the LTB eviction order is issued, on strict terms as follows:

(1) The monthly rent (including $95 for parking) is $1,026.15. Mr Galeano paid January's rent of $931.15. He shall pay the balance for January, being $95 for parking, by January 14, 2022.

(2) Mr Galeano shall pay the monthly rent (including parking) by the first day of each month, starting February 1, 2022.

(3) Mr Galeano shall pay $500 per month towards arrears, the first such payment to be made by January 17, 2022, and each monthly payment thereafter to be paid by the 15th day of each month thereafter.

(4) If Mr Galeano fails to make any of the payments described in paras. 1, 2 and 3, the stay of enforcement of the eviction order of the LTB may be lifted by this court, on request from the landlord by email, copied to the tenant.

(5) Mr Galeano shall serve and send by email to the court a Notice of Appeal by January 31, 2022, after which the court will give further directions for the appeal.

[3] Mr Galeano is cautioned that these terms are not suggestions or guidelines. He should follow them strictly if he wishes to try to preserve his tenancy.

Reasons

[4] Mr Galeano is self-represented and is entitled to assistance navigating the court process. The court is persuaded that he has tried to do this, but that his approach has been scattered at best. The court is persuaded that Mr Galeano really does wish to preserve his tenancy and meet his obligations, but the court is sceptical that he has any reasonable plan to achieve this. The LTB gave Mr Galeano many opportunities to rectify the situation and there is a long history of Mr Galeano embarking on such a plan but failing to carry through with it to a satisfactory conclusion.

[5] The obligation to pay rent is fundamental to the tenancy. While the court is sympathetic to the reasons provided by Mr Galeano for his difficulties, at the end of the day the responsibility to pay rent has not been discharged and arrears have continued to accumulate. It is not clear to the court that Mr Galeano's stated intention to clear his arrears is a sound business decision for him, in all the circumstances, or that, even with the best of intentions, he will be able to do it.

[6] Now that this case is in this court, further prejudice to the landlord may be minimized by strict terms. Inherent delays at the LTB could lead to further material prejudice by granting a further payment plan, but the same concerns do not apply in this court. From a practical point of view, the landlord may obtain a swift remedy from this court if there is a missed payment, and as I have explained to Mr Galeano, there will be no effective appeal or review of an order from this court lifting the stay of enforcement of the eviction order: there is no interim stay, and by the time any review or appeal could be heard, the eviction order would have been carried out. I repeat this point here so that it is crystal-clear to Mr Galeano: he is running out of "second chances".

[7] All of this said, I am persuaded that Mr Galeano is sincere and that he really does wish to do what he can to salvage and maintain his tenancy. He took up this tenancy five years ago, at the young age of 19, and he tells me this apartment is the only home he has known independently. He has domestic animals and he will find it difficult to relocate and his pets could be put at risk if he is required to leave his premises. I am persuaded that he will try to do his best. Whether that proves to be enough, only time will tell.

[8] The potential prejudice to the landlord of giving Mr Galeano this last chance is a possible delay of days or a few weeks, and that prejudice is ameliorated by the payment Mr Galeano has made for the January rent.

[9] This appeal is really about "last chances" more than anything else, and if the required payments are made then the court will likely stay the appeal pending continued performance of the payment terms established by this court - the real issue is whether Mr Galeano will clear his arrears and put his tenancy back into good standing.

[10] Further communications respecting these issues will be by email. Mr Galeano has confirmed that his email address is onerealarty@gmail.com . Sending communications to Mr Galeano at this email address will be effective as of the time the communications are sent, and it is Mr Galeano's responsibility to ensure that the email address remains active and that he checks his email regularly: the fault will be his if he fails to get an email properly addressed to him at this email address.

[11] Finally, Mr Galeano indicated that he is trying to make arrangements for some help with his arrears from the rent Bank. He should continue in those efforts. Paying down his arrears more than is required by this direction will help him greatly if he should find himself in a situation in future where he misses a payment. Mr Galeano should understand that the court will not give him any further chances if the arrears are not reduced and eventually eliminated at least as quickly as required by the terms of this direction.

“D.L. Corbett J.”

January 24, 2022

[^1]: This endorsement was originally released to the parties by email on January 7, 2022, which is the effective date of this decision.