IN THE MATTER of the Rental of Residential Property Act, R.S.P.E.1. 1988, Cap. R-13.1:
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IN THE MATTER of an appeal, under Section 25 of the Rental of Residential Property Act, by Gavin Conway (the Lessor) of DeSable, Prince Edward Island, against Decision and Order No. 92-0064 of the Director of Residential Rental Property dated April 8, 1992.
APPEAL HEARD BEFORE:
Linda Webber, Chairman
John L. Blakney, Vice Chairman
Anne McPhee, CommissionDATE OF HEARING: May 26, 1992
DATE OF ORDER: July 24, 1992
Decision and Order
Participants
Gavin Conway & Andrea Conway (Lessors)
Christine McFadden (Lessee)
Decision
Evidence and Argument
On December 19, 1991 the house occupied by the Lessee was destroyed by fire.
The Lessors state that in the next few days and weeks numerous attempts were made by the Lessors to contact the Lessee and determine if the Lessee needed assistance. Contact was only made on January 8, 1992. During the intervening period comments made by neighbors led the Lessors to believe that the Lessee's nine year old daughter, left alone in the house, had started the fire. Since the Lessors believed this to be true, and since their efforts to contact the Lessee were unsuccessful, they concluded that they had the right to keep the damage deposit and the requirement for notice to the Lessee within ten days of her departure could not apply since they could not find her. She finally contacted their answering service on January 7, 1992.
On her part, the Lessee states that she made several efforts after the fire to contact the Lessors -- contacting the Lessors' answering service four times before the Lessors finally contacted her. She said the post office had her forwarding address, as did a number of other people.
The Lessee denies that her daughter was responsible for the fire although she admits that unknown to her the daughter had returned to the empty house in spite of arrangements made for her to go elsewhere that evening. The Lessee pointed out that when she heard about the fire she only worried about the dog that had been left there, because she had no idea her daughter was even there.
The Lessee also stated that she has had problems in the past with the neighbors who made the allegations against her daughter. The Lessee also commented on being threatened with a lawsuit by the Lessor.
Decision
The Commission is not in a position to determine how the fire started and does not need to do so. At worst it was an accident.
The Lessors impressed the Commission as reasonable and generally fair in the approach they took with respect to this unfortunate situation. The inability of the Lessee and Lessor to get in touch with each other may be a result of both the fire and the time of year (near Christmas). That time of year is often hectic and could result in messages not being delivered or received. We do feel the Lessors made a reasonable effort and that given the circumstances the strict letter of the law requiring notice to the Lessee cannot be applied.
The Lessee impressed the Commission as a not unreasonable person but one who was afraid that she would be blamed for the fire and suffer financial penalties for something that she was not able to control. Her responses to questions indicate that she does understand the significance of the loss to the Lessors and could accept the loss of the security deposit in the circumstances.
Since the premises were legally in the care and control of the Lessee at the time of the fire, and since the Fire Marshall's report (filed with the Commission as Exhibit I 1) indicates no evidence of faulty wiring or other apparent structural deficiency as a cause of the fire, we feel that there is some responsibility on the Lessee which justifies a forfeit of the security deposit in the circumstances.
Order
The Appeal is allowed and the Order of the Director of Residential Rental Property is hereby vacated.
The Lessors are by this Order allowed to keep the security deposit of $200.00 plus accumulated interest.
DATED this 24th day of July, 1992.
THE ISLAND REGULATORY AND APPEALS COMMISSION:
Linda Webber, Chairman
John L. Blakney, Vice-Chairman
Anne McPhee, Commissioner
