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Advice needed - Evicting a Shop Tenant in Ontario, Canada

gerbshop

Plastic
Joined
Mar 20, 2016
Hi guys, looking for some advice here.

Our family owns a small commercial building, and rent half of it out. Long story short the current tenant stopped paying in December. We changed the locks after 15 days as allowed per Ontario law. He's made a bunch of promises since, but we need to move on.

We are now left with a bunch of tools, engines, welders, and car frames/bodies etc that are ground down to bare metal and FAR FAR from finished.

From what I understand, 5 days after changing the locks we are able to sell items. I'm just not sure the process to do this. The phone number we have for the tenant is dead. Do the items need to be appraised, or can someone just cut us a check and take away what they like?

Any help is appreciated.
Cheers,
 
I should add that the tenant likely does not own these "cars" or whats left of them to be more correct. I figure I may have to get the police or ministry of transportation involved - but from what I've seen I can't locate VINs on most of the frames/bodies.
 
Hi guys, looking for some advice here.

Our family owns a small commercial building, and rent half of it out. Long story short the current tenant stopped paying in December. We changed the locks after 15 days as allowed per Ontario law. He's made a bunch of promises since, but we need to move on.

We are now left with a bunch of tools, engines, welders, and car frames/bodies etc that are ground down to bare metal and FAR FAR from finished.

From what I understand, 5 days after changing the locks we are able to sell items. I'm just not sure the process to do this. The phone number we have for the tenant is dead. Do the items need to be appraised, or can someone just cut us a check and take away what they like?

Any help is appreciated.
Cheers,

Seems like you need to find out who owns the cars, tenant or the tenant's customers. IDK about Canada but here you can't even scrap a car without the title. Here you would need to do a sheriff's sale to get possession/ownership.
 
Over here no vins would be a serious red flag issue, good chance the sheriff may be the reason you already can't get a hold of the tenant!

Above all get some solid legal advice, this stuff is area specific and commercial space is almost always different to residential space. Get this wrong and it could cost you really badly down the road.
 
Best course of action is to check with an attorney or local police. I had a tenant do a similar thing but filed bankruptcy in his business name. Seems he forgot he personally guaranteed the lease, having given him a second chance ( his attorney was furious ), so I was able to shut him out. My attorney registered with the state that we intended to sell his equipment, we got some kind of cert authorizing the sale. The police advised me to have a County Salvage Agent take care of the cars, car frames and car parts since I had no idea who owned them. The agent told me there would probably be 1 or 2 stolen cars in the group. It's pretty common in shops like that.

Like adama said get the legal advice now to save the headaches down the road.
 
Unless Ontario is radically different than any of the other Provinces, there will be several variations of Lien Act on the books, relating to, essentially the time periods which someone else's property is un-paid, becomes un-theirs. Typically would be a Mechanics Lien Act and a Warehousman's Lien Act, or similarly named.
Both, usually have provisions for transferring title of vehicles over, and with their own prescribed limitations and requirements.

If you are involved with keeping a commercial building of any sort, without owning a tame Lawyer, you really need to change that.

Talk to a Lawyer. Money well spent!

Cheers
Trev
 
Hi guys, looking for some advice here.

Our family owns a small commercial building, and rent half of it out. Long story short the current tenant stopped paying in December. We changed the locks after 15 days as allowed per Ontario law. He's made a bunch of promises since, but we need to move on.

We are now left with a bunch of tools, engines, welders, and car frames/bodies etc that are ground down to bare metal and FAR FAR from finished.

From what I understand, 5 days after changing the locks we are able to sell items. I'm just not sure the process to do this. The phone number we have for the tenant is dead. Do the items need to be appraised, or can someone just cut us a check and take away what they like?

Any help is appreciated.
Cheers,

I'm about as far as anyone can get from Ontario, but I'll relate what I ran into.
I bought a car from a landlord. Or thought I did. Tenant had moved out, left EVERYTHING! Including food ON THE PLATE, DINNER BEING CONSUMED! (You tell me what went down!) Clothes in the closets, mail on the desk. Just like they stepped outside. But it was 90 days since their last rent payment. Landlord checked with the DA, DA said she could sell personal property to recover lost rent and expenses incurred. I heard about a Camaro sitting in the back yard. I initiated contact, landlord sold me the car, with it's contents, I had to move it. SO I did. Here's where it gets interesting.
I found out who the car was registered to. IN so doing I found there was a lien against it. Contacted the lien holder, and they responded with "sure, we'll gladly sell you the abandoned car, for the amount owed. No. I'm not interested in paying retailprice for a car with the motor out, in the trunk, severely damaged(spun rod bearings) even though it was a desirable motor(LT1 350) Wasn't even all there. Some nice goodies had been accumulated, as parts to hop it up. But we are talking a ton of work needed. So. I informed the lien holder what the cars condition was, and told them I would retain it, at the going storage rate, till they picked it up. Next thing I hear is several weeks later, the gal that actually held the title contacted me, informed me that the landlord could NOT sell the car, as it was a titled property. So I checked with the DA myself. He said that is correct. If there was a titled piece of property, it would have to go through a sheriffs sale to sell it. So I contacted the landlord, informed her as to what the situation was. She decided to just leave it with me, refunded my money. If I could get some storage out of it for the trouble of moving it, fine. I informed the actual title holder, told her to come pick it up anytime she wanted it, but that storage was accumulating. This rocked on for a couple of years. Several times, the owner said she was gonna pick it up, each time I saud fine. Bring X amount of cash, and a title proving that she was the owner. Never showed.
I eventually parted the car out. Engine was not the original, so the engine number didn't match the title anyway. All the parts were just parts. No proof of anything and not part of the original titled vehicle. Ended up, a guy bought the body for a race car.
This was all in Texas, so I doubt Ontario has the exact same disposition requirements. But My point is, without titles, those cars are scrap iron. Or parts at best. IF you do decide to move against your renter, and I think I would, do not expect much renumeration from the cars. You could even be dealing with a chop shop. The cars could be hot. The VIN numbers being missing is a bad sign. Get the law involved early and follow their instructions. I got lucky. You might not.
The tools and equipment are probably safe. They are not titled. Unless somebody shows up with a lien, with some serial numbers on the equipment. Not sure how that would float out. I do know that in the states, there are many cases where law enforcement can and do confiscate cars and equipment IF it is used in the commission of a crime.(The chop shop?) They seem very much hesitant to confiscate things that there is a lien against. Let the buyer beware!
 
Thanks for the advice. Ignoring the cars, is the process the same for selling tools/etc to recoup lost rent? It appears I'll have to speak with an attorney and have them register with the province that we plan to sell his items? Starting to make sense.

I don't believe the tenant owns a business. Just a personal endevour he tried to make work I guess.

As far as the cars go, its basically junk and no real value to us. I know for a fact the local scrap yards will not take them without VIN/ownership so I'll get the police or whoever involved to find the past owners or next steps.

I don't believe it was a chop shop, we kept a close eye on the activities and saw most the customers drop their cars off to the tenant. He is more of a scammer than anything. I figure he would take a deposit up front for the work, grind the car down to bare metal and find "unexpected problems" and then ask for more money and so on.
 
Thanks for the advice. Ignoring the cars, is the process the same for selling tools/etc to recoup lost rent? It appears I'll have to speak with an attorney and have them register with the province that we plan to sell his items? Starting to make sense.

I don't believe the tenant owns a business. Just a personal endevour he tried to make work I guess.

As far as the cars go, its basically junk and no real value to us. I know for a fact the local scrap yards will not take them without VIN/ownership so I'll get the police or whoever involved to find the past owners or next steps.

I don't believe it was a chop shop, we kept a close eye on the activities and saw most the customers drop their cars off to the tenant. He is more of a scammer than anything. I figure he would take a deposit up front for the work, grind the car down to bare metal and find "unexpected problems" and then ask for more money and so on.

Go talk to a lawyer, if you have not yet.

Talk the the local Motor Vehicles folks, that deal with registrations and transfers. They can set you on the path to claim the vehicles as your property. It certainly is not as convoluted in Canada as in some States, but there is a process.

This is similar to the same process used by towing companies, to recover what they are owed, for storing a car or other vehicle in their yard. Among other uses. Or that Repo men use to, well, repossess an unpaid for item.

Some looking about on line and you should be able to come up with the VIN locations on the various frames, if you have some idea what they started out as, otherwise, call the Police and have them have a look. It might be that they would like a break from dealing with their usual lot, or they may be a while getting to you. They are like to be able to run any identifiable serial numbers through CPIC, to identify the actual owner, or whether the vehicle has been reported stolen.

Guy sounds more like a shade tree mechanic working for cash, than a chop shop operator, but the property may still be someone else's. Worth checking.

As before. It IS a process, try to keep the timelines in mind when you go through it. It may recover some of your funds, but like as not it will simply suck away time you won't get back, in aid of moving towards something profitable.

Cheers
Trev
 
not just a lawyer, a lawyer practiced in commercial real estate. Its out of your corporate/litigation/divorce/estate/criminal/patent/etc lawyers daily routine.
 
in Canada, after 20 days, all the stuff is yours? tenant doesn't pay december rent, then on december 20th you can legally sell their stuff without a court hearing the case? really?
 
not just a lawyer, a lawyer practiced in commercial real estate. Its out of your corporate/litigation/divorce/estate/criminal/patent/etc lawyers daily routine.

my 2 cents... Just pick some random lawyers and give them a call.. When they say "I don't do that",
ask them who does.. They aren't going to send you to a dip shit.. You just might need their services
someday, so they will point you in the right direction..

And the "cheap" lawyer is not necessarily the one that costs the least in the end.

Shitty situation to be in (people suck), but you need to cover your ass.
 
Do they have any files, receipts, or paperwork??
You might find some name like : John Smith '75 Camaro, repair yada yada yada.
You could give this info to the attorney you hire.
Then he can contact John Smith and ask about the situation on the Camaro.
This might help the police solve some theft ring chop shop stuff, or get the stuff out of your building.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I547 using Tapatalk
 
Let me get this straight.

This guy hosed a bunch of people by taking their cars apart after cashing the check. Then tried to bill them more. Then skipped town.

So instead of telling these people sorry just the landlord and please get your car out of here.,,,,,, You sell them out from under them?
 
You don't need "advice" from machinists and shop owners. You need a lawyer.

What you're going to get here is as valuable as asking for speed, feed, and depth of cut recommendations on a lawyer's forum.
 
AS a car guy I say do try to find the owners

the simple thing is put up a sign on the property saying the stuff is going to go. Many customers may stop by and just leave if the guy isn't there. Maybe an ad in the local paper.

I helped on a situation some years ago involving a friend who had gone off his meds and abandoned a car business. A friend of mine went to get his car back and saw the sheriffs notice, and I started calling other friends, got to the ex wife, got the names of the owners[probably 150k worth of vehicles]got them to show up...landlord blocked the doors, thinking he was going to make a killing luckily the ex wife had some stuff still there and agreed to pay towards the rent and he backed off.

Landlord's lawyer was pissed that the landlord was being such a jerk, you cannot keep titled property

OF course Canada is probably different but both because of possible blow back, because the customers have already been screwed, and just to be a decent guy, do try to find the owners of the cars.

sell his tools....
 








 
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