MONTREAL – A Montreal woman who recently immigrated from Brazil claims she’s the victim of a slumlord seeking revenge.
The city of Montreal ordered her out of her apartment due to mold and poor air quality and now she’s facing a hefty lawsuit from her former landlord.
“I’m sad and very disappointed” said 54 year old Lucia Veronica Da Silva, who feels unfairly targeted. The single mother was forced to leave her apartment in the Mile End after receiving an emergency evacuation notice due to widespread mold and bad air quality.
Da Silva claims she was subjected to unsanitary living conditions, from broken windows that were never repaired to leaking pipes that caused massive flooding in the building’s basement.
“The plumbing was leaking in the basement it cause fetid air to permeate the whole house which accounted for the city’s evacuation order,” said legal analyst Ken Fernandez.
The city’s intervention didn’t come as a surprise but what did was a lawyer’s letter addressed to Da Silva from her former landlord, more than 2 years after she moved out, demanding $23,000 in compensation.
“It appears to me to be entirely malicious, vexatious and a gross abuse of power,” said Fernandez.
The landlord in question has since sold the building and insists he had to lower the sale price because of the property damage – which he blames on his former tenant.
“We had to do a lot of work to repair and it and I’m claiming her for all the damage that I suffered,” said landlord Chan Tho Lam, who blames the building’s damages on a handyman hired by his former tenant.
“The guy broke the main pipe and it flooded the crawling space and then it brought a lot of humidity,” explained Lam, who is also a high profile lawyer.
Lam admits it looks bad, but feels he has no choice but to sue his former tenant.
“I don’t want to appear as somebody who takes advantage of a poor immigrant, myself I’m a poor immigrant,” said Lam.
The case is currently before the rental board and should be heard in the coming weeks.
Comments