Inappropriate Legal Notices Sent for Billing Errors
Tenants are being billed amounts that, upon simple verification, are found to be incorrect. What's even worse, they discover this through an aggressive formal notice, or receiving a telephone call when the tenant is traveling.
According to an administration spokes person, a formal notice is sent immediately before any verification. This approach is unnecessarily aggressive and counterproductive: it causes stress, hassle, time losses, and various expenses (e.g., legal consultations), in addition to creating a sense of distrust towards the administration.
It is essential for Rockhill to ensure the accuracy of the amounts before bothering honest tenants with formal notices accompanied by threats of legal action, when it is unjustified. Furthermore, when tenants reject increases deemed excessive, Rockhill must make a note of this in the client file management system to avoid harassing tenants by prematurely demanding sums before the lease adjustment session.
This disproportionate measure compels the individual to immediately interrupt their activities to try to understand the situation and correct the error. This involves locating the appropriate documents, verifying amounts, and attempting to communicate with the person who sent the formal notice.
- Is the Service department in Montreal? If not, where?
- Why does the Service department not answer billing inquiries directly, instead of escalating through the building representative, via the property manager - there seems to be a lot of stakeholders
- Is Accounting in Montreal? Why would it be difficult to verify before sending a formal notice?
- Employees do not seem to be familiar of all of the steps of the rent fixation process, requesting unawarded amounts. Or is this because these unawarded amounts are being entered as if due (even though the actual amount will be set by the Tribunal). If it's an earnings reporting issue this needs to be handled more like a fiduciary account than a receivable so there is less confusion.
A professional and customer-oriented approach would be concerned about not wasting its clients' time or impugning their honesty. It is crucial that a respectful approach be adopted for such cases, starting with conducting a verification.
Once the issue is resolved, the Rockhill service department that sent the threatening communication should send an official notice of the error along with apologies.
- Notices and billing errors: Mr. Contarini will discuss with the Ottawa team for better coordination and not to rush into notices too quickly. For example, maintaining a record of overdue accounts, and the first time an account appears, conduct a verification with the Montreal team. In case of doubt, modify the letter so that it does not imply legal action but rather a matter to be discussed with the administration.
- Discussion about people being asked for unattributed sums - the system needs to be reviewed, or training. Mr. Contarini will review these cases with Mr. Cao to understand what is happening.
Several tenants have come forward since the last meeting, reporting receiving notices for imaginary amounts.
Despite discussions with the administration, they continue to receive new notices every month. In some cases, the person in charge of the building had told the tenant that everything was fine and that they owed nothing, but a few days later, a new letter was sent to them.
The Rockhill administration told the RTC that they have escalated the issue of the numerous billing errors and related unjustified notices of legal action. Unfortunately there is nothing concrete so far and the Montreal-based team is left without the ability to drive this process, as they cannot commit to any specific steps or timeframes.
The RTC reminded the administration of the level of stress caused by the numerous and frequently elderly tenants targeted without justification. This is particularly intolerable as the letters are sent multiple times in spite of having discussed the issues in person with administration representatives.
The administration was advised that, in light of the large number of invalid notices being sent out, a tenant could successfully argue to the administrative tribunal that they can no longer take those letters seriously since they regularly are sent by mistake.
The administration said that they were verifying the accounts one by one. The RTC countered that what tenants are looking for is a commitment to a change of procedures so that good tenants that pay their rents are not treated like delinquents through no fault of their own.
