Sorry for using English to save time -- our story of going to the court

darkeyes(darkeyes)

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛My hubby and I move the previous apartment in the end of April,2002. When we moved out, the landlord (a russian canadian)told us that he would return the funiture deposit ( we rented a funitured apt. before) by mail within one week. well, we trusted him, although my hubby and I argured regarding if the fellow was trustable. Several weeks passed, we received nothing, we called him, always reach the voice mail, then we left a message and repeat our address clearly, thought he might forget the address. Soon, he called back , shouted " I spent more than $250 to clean the apartment, you owe me ...." So ridiculous!! we called him again and warned him we'd take further action if he insisted detaining the money. "Go ahead" is the answer, Then we went to Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal to file an application, waiting for the hearing .... Having completed all the process, an order was issued that the landlord collected and detained money illegally.... well, in one sentence, he owes us money. We thought this might stop here, since we got the order.

but ,that's just a start! one month after the oder's issuing, we got nothing, I called the landlord, he shouted to me" I never received any order, the case is dismissed", I call the tribunal to confirm if it's possible he did not receive the order, the lady in the phone said" that's imposssible" then I asked how could I do now? she answered without hesitation, "oh, you should collect your money form the small claims court."

After making many phone calls, inquires we decided to go to the court again althouth, that's only 250 bulks, During the procedure, the landlod throw many bad words out made us so mad and felt" 是可忍,孰不可忍", also I found out that's not his first time to do such things, I think noone would bother to go to 2 different courts just for 250 bulks, that's why he's so law-abiding,coz nobody push him to the court! He might make a real fortune from it! Then we filed the claim, paid the court fees, finish the affidavit , we chose present ourselves in the court instead go to a lawyer, since it a real SMALL CLAIM, even less than minimum of a lawyer's fee.

After several months waiting, we went to the court this morning for pre-trail, the guy even wanna fight back in the court, show me some pictures of damaged micwaves asked for claim!! gosh, who knows whose micwave that is, he even acted shamelessly,"give me 100 bulks for the micwave, then it's over" I just told him ," ok, sue me just like I sue you, I have no interest in your pictures, just go to the court, " Thank god there's judge there, we finally got an order issued that the landlord should pay $250 back plus interest total $265, while the judge refused the recoverage of the court fees for she really wants to get an agreement since this is such small case.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net

(#1032763@0)
Last Updated: 2003-2-10
This post has been archived. It cannot be replied.

鼓励，希望把经历贴出来。 -silverwater(没正事，我改还不行); 2003-2-10 (#1032581@0)

Sorry for using English to save time -- our story of going to the court -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 {2846} (#1032763@0)
本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛My hubby and I move the previous apartment in the end of April,2002. When we moved out, the landlord (a russian canadian)told us that he would return the funiture deposit ( we rented a funitured apt. before) by mail within one week. well, we trusted him, although my hubby and I argured regarding if the fellow was trustable. Several weeks passed, we received nothing, we called him, always reach the voice mail, then we left a message and repeat our address clearly, thought he might forget the address. Soon, he called back , shouted " I spent more than $250 to clean the apartment, you owe me ...." So ridiculous!! we called him again and warned him we'd take further action if he insisted detaining the money. "Go ahead" is the answer, Then we went to Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal to file an application, waiting for the hearing .... Having completed all the process, an order was issued that the landlord collected and detained money illegally.... well, in one sentence, he owes us money. We thought this might stop here, since we got the order.

but ,that's just a start! one month after the oder's issuing, we got nothing, I called the landlord, he shouted to me" I never received any order, the case is dismissed", I call the tribunal to confirm if it's possible he did not receive the order, the lady in the phone said" that's imposssible" then I asked how could I do now? she answered without hesitation, "oh, you should collect your money form the small claims court."

After making many phone calls, inquires we decided to go to the court again althouth, that's only 250 bulks, During the procedure, the landlod throw many bad words out made us so mad and felt" 是可忍,孰不可忍", also I found out that's not his first time to do such things, I think noone would bother to go to 2 different courts just for 250 bulks, that's why he's so law-abiding,coz nobody push him to the court! He might make a real fortune from it! Then we filed the claim, paid the court fees, finish the affidavit , we chose present ourselves in the court instead go to a lawyer, since it a real SMALL CLAIM, even less than minimum of a lawyer's fee.

After several months waiting, we went to the court this morning for pre-trail, the guy even wanna fight back in the court, show me some pictures of damaged micwaves asked for claim!! gosh, who knows whose micwave that is, he even acted shamelessly,"give me 100 bulks for the micwave, then it's over" I just told him ," ok, sue me just like I sue you, I have no interest in your pictures, just go to the court, " Thank god there's judge there, we finally got an order issued that the landlord should pay $250 back plus interest total $265, while the judge refused the recoverage of the court fees for she really wants to get an agreement since this is such small case.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net

good practice. -lmx(流氓兔); 2003-2-10 (#1032776@0)
Well done !!! -mssg(mssg); 2003-2-10 (#1032833@0)
Strongly Support! -youyou(youyou); 2003-2-15 (#1042322@0)

Well well done! Strongly support! -pocketmonsters(小胖仙女); 2003-2-18 (#1047430@0)

court fee是多少啊？不会比300块还多吧。 -zhu(猪头); 2003-2-10 (#1032648@0)

嘿嘿,court fee 总共$95,$50 是给这次的small claims court 的. -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 (#1032660@0)

见好就收吧，得饶人处且饶人。 -rollor(Rollor); 2003-2-10 (#1032715@0)

话可不能这么说,是我的权利,我当然要争取,更何况是前房东想抢钱一样疯狂,以为我们亚洲人好说话,不会真的争到底,他不是第一次这么干了,具我所知的前一个受害者是个韩国女孩 -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 (#1032791@0)

绝对正确. 你这次大概算下来大概还损失了几十块吧? 碰上我也要这么做的, 一切按照正常途径做, 得到我该得到的. 我的思路就是我可以自愿捐100块, 但决不容忍别人赖我10块钱. 大家都这样做了, 那我们华人就不会被欺负了. 现在 -mjs(臭豆腐-俏鲁达); 2003-2-10 {173} (#1032836@0)
我们华人给人家的影响就是太软弱. 啥是怕麻烦, 息事宁人. 其实你越软弱人家越欺负你. 我们要学会正当的保护自己. 该Tough的时候就应该tough点. 就算为了自己的尊严也应该去合理的Fight.

谢谢,是啊,损失$95 court fee(本来以为可以要回来的)再加数次邮寄大约十几块.不过,再来一次的话,我还是要这么做.不过会更tough一点,让自己损失更小一点. :-) -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 (#1032849@0)

是啊. 如果100块钱和骨气相比, 我肯定选后者. 如果这么小的损失($100),而且对自己也没啥损害(就是花点时间上一下厅), 我们都不愿意去Fight的话, 那真的是没有人能保护我们了. 也没有人会看得起我们这个群体了. 因为大家都 -mjs(臭豆腐-俏鲁达); 2003-2-10 {105} (#1032876@0)
知道我们中国人会忍的, 会多一事还不如少一事的. 其实越这样就越被欺负, 为什么啊? 赫赫, 柿子总是检软的捏的啊.

还是要回来100多,去掉我们的损失以后.:-) -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 (#1032862@0)
You are so damn right! -rudy2000(Fish and Shrimp); 2003-2-10 (#1032864@0)

有理。 -rollor(Rollor); 2003-2-10 (#1032904@0)

I totally totally totally disagree -sdfsdf(不是老虎); 2003-2-11 (#1034013@0)

有事请教。给你发mail了。 -new_guest(new guest); 2003-2-10 (#1032873@0)

回信了 -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 (#1032892@0)
Check this out -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 (#1033124@0)
先填Plaintiff's Claim,然后和你的证据及$50一起寄到small claims court, -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-10 {210} (#1033135@0)
court staff填了Claim no.及在表上盖了章以后,你再寄给被告(或送)另外,如果你是serve by mail 的话,还需要填affidavit　form再swron by a commissioner or lawyer,网上的How to make small claims court work for you非常有用.

谢谢，等下班再向你请教。 -new_guest(new guest); 2003-2-10 (#1033147@0)

Most Russian are bad -itotatsuo(sho); 2003-2-10 (#1033356@0)

居理力争无论是多小的事，它的影响是大的。这一次俄罗斯吃了教训，可能下一次在碰到中国人的时候就不会不以为然了。中国人帮中国人嘛 -ylin22(Walker Alone); 2003-2-11 (#1033847@0)

Buddy: you are great! Everybody should act like . The occidentals usually think Chinese Tolerance as useless and weak. Thus we should give them Some Colour To See See. -jamesyx(james); 2003-2-11 (#1033867@0)

Well done pal! I would like to add 2 tips about business: 1. keep everything documented - lease agreement, prove of payments, business correspondence, emails, even telephone recording. -1499728inc(bank); 2003-2-11 {757} (#1034151@0)

You never know what would happen. A good record keeping keeps things black and white at all time. When a disput erupts, you can tell who was at fault.

2. Carefully exam the legal document that you are going to sign. Keep in mind that you have the right to change it before signing. A document drafted by your landlord will state all the rights the landlord has and none for you. In your case for example, if you insisted putting a clause about disput that loser payes all, the court would have granted you legal fee compensation. Normally small claim court will not grant the claim of legal costs unless it is explicitly expressed and agreed upon in a legal agreement by both parties.

Congratulations! And thank you for sharing the experience with us.

Thanks for these tips. Hope I would never involved in such incidents again! :-) well, if it happened happens, sure I will do same again, experiencedly. -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-11 {1088} (#1034517@0)
本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛I kept all documents and receipts even record of the loser's phone call. Also, I generated a clear statement with execl forms, which states in 2 columns - "what happed" and "the evidence", then come to a claulation form. I think all of these makes my statement and presentation explicit enough to make court staff understand everything. According to my experience and feeling, I think the judge had a initial judgement even before both parties entered the conference room, that leaves you much less room to "ask for" something, say, compensation. So, I think, to those real small claims, the most important thing starts form the evidence you attached to the plantiff's form, which leaves the judge the first impression. I just attached basic one for I was thinking I could "ask for" compensation during the conference. I really did lots of work for the papers and documents to support my presentation, but the thing is, court staff just wanna "solve" a case as soon as possible, as simple as possible, they do not wanna cost much time, especially, for those real small claims.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net

You should be a lawyer. You are damn right about judge. Judge will not waste his/her time to listen to your argument. As soon as she smells who is likely at fault, she will pin in the bad guy and only ask -1499728inc(bank); 2003-2-11 {373} (#1034673@0)
specific key questions.

It is absolutely to your advantage to have everything documented, to make the case crystal clear that the russian was at fault, to give the judge the first impression that this is it -bad guy. Knock your hammer.

Although you lost $100 it worths it because the experience you gained through this case will benefit you for the rest of your life.

Thanks. yeah, I really learned some from this case, at this point, it makes up the $100 loss. :-) -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-11 (#1034701@0)

There may be a way to save your money in future. I was told an organization to accept tenants complain about fees charged by landlords, if this organization accepts your case, -tt77(杰少); 2003-2-11 {166} (#1035597@0)

then you will get your money back, the landlord will be charged penalty. I have no idea abuot the details, or if they charge anything. The phone # is (416) 585-7214

Thanks -darkeyes(darkeyes); 2003-2-12 (#1036048@0)

@Montreal

Sorry for using English to save time -- our story of going to the court

Replies, comments and Discussions:

More Topics