I get asked a lot about serving documents to tenants. A lot of times it can be hard to track down somebody who is avoiding you.
The bigger challenge is when you hook a “professional tenant”, they use the rules in their favor to drag out a process such as eviction.
I know a lot of people do not have great things to say about the Nova Scotia residential tenancy board (or any other for that matter).
I will give credit where credit is due and find the Nova Scotia residential tenancy board is very active online. Although there always seems to be too many forms, they are all online.
Part of what they offer is a proper lease that is based on the residential tenancy act. On this official lease there is a section where the tenant and landlord can provide email addresses. I highly recommend this section does not get over looked.
In the methods of service of documents to tenants it reads the following:
“A tenant or a landlord can serve electronically, only if the other party has provided an email address to receive documents in section 7 and 7A of their lease or in an addendum (Landlord and Tenant
Consent for Email form) to their existing lease. The electronic copy must be substantially the same as the original and capable of being retained by the other party so that they can use for later reference.“
In this recent example they announced a change in process:
This notice is to advise you that starting today, the Residential Tenancy Program will return to a 7-day period to serve a party with a Notice of Hearing form. The period was originally extended due to challenges faced at the beginning of the pandemic. We are no longer facing those challenges and we will return to the 7-day period outlined in our policy (Service of Documents Policy: Residential Tenancies – Government of Nova Scotia). However, if more than 7 days are needed, parties may still apply for an extension of time from their assigned Residential Tenancy Officer.
Until next time,
Design your landlord experience,
Michael P Currie
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