VERNON – A North Okanagan charity that helps people with disabilities has been told to change the way it was billing one of its tenants, after an arbitrator ruled she was paying too much for utilities. Karen Flynn’s daughter Christel Flynn is living in an affordable housing unit where Kindale is the landlord. The 30-year-old has a learning disability and lives on a limited income. Christel Flynn moved in in October 2013 but ultimately the way her daughter was being charged for utilities didn’t sit right with Karen Flynn.
“There was only one meter for the whole complex so everybody would be sharing the power,” she says “Basically, they were guess estimating the amount of usage because there is no meter to show how much power is being used by each individual.”
Kindale was using square footage to help determine what each tenants’ share of the utility bill should be.
The Residential Tenancy Branch arbitrator seems to agree. In their decision they wrote “since the landlord does not really have an accurate way of calculating how much utilities each tenant in the rental property uses, it is my decision that the landlord must include the cost of utilities in the applicants rent.”
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The arbitrator also ruling that Flynn had overpaid utilities by $130.79.
Last November Kindale did offer to include heat and hydro in Flynn’s rent but on the advice of a lawyer the family opted to wait for the hearing.
In a written statement Kindale says it participated in an arbitration in good faith and that it has implemented and is in compliance with the arbitrator’s decision. The full text of Kindale’s press release is available below.
The charity says all tenants were given the choice to include utilities.
The province has its own advice about how landlords and tenants should deal with utilities.
“The Residential Tenancy Act doesn’t specify how utilities must be billed – landlords and tenants are encouraged to include a term in their individual tenancy agreement that addresses the allocation of utility expenses at the start of a tenancy,” wrote a spokesperson for the ministry responsible for housing.
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