Landlord BSW Resources Ltd. has filed suit against tenant Canadian Institute of Natural Health and Healing Inc. (CINHH) after lease errors allegedly led to the tenant backing out of a five-year lease.
The suit, filed in BC Supreme Court March 7, states that BSW Resources agreed to lease the main floor of a Water Street building to the defendant beginning in September 2011.
The statement of claim alleges that after the tenant had signed the lease, the landlord noted two errors in it – one indicating that the lease started in September 2010 rather than September 2011, and one containing a signature space for Stellar Properties Ltd. instead of the landlord.
The court document claims that the plaintiff asked CINHH director Connie Anne Lenora Brummet to re-sign a corrected lease on November 23,2011, after CINHH had benefited from two months of free rent under the agreement.
However, the claim alleges that Brummet declined in an email to re-sign the lease.
"I am sorry but I am taking this voided contract as a sign for God [sic] that it is my time to retreat from a lease in Vancouver," Brummet allegedly wrote on or about November 29, 2011. "I will be mailing you the keys today of the suite."
The plaintiff is seeking rectification of the lease to fix the errors; $510,300 in damages for the value of the unexpired term of the lease; and a declaration of the landlord's right to recover legal fees.
None of these allegations has been proven in court.
As of press time, no response to the civil claim had been filed. •
