A BC woman evicted from her Habitat for Humanity home after she lost her job has been left to pay court costs after losing an appeal at BC’s highest court.

Erin Elizabeth Booth had argued that each side should just pay their own legal bills, but a panel of two judges at the BC Court of Appeal disagreed.

“While we appreciate that an order for costs in favour of Habitat (for Humanity) at both levels of court imposes a financial burden on Ms. Booth, we would not characterize this as an unfair financial penalty,” Justice Barbara Fisher said in a Sept. 4 decision.

The ruling doesn’t give a dollar amount of how much this will cost Booth, but her case has bounced from court to court as she appealed rulings, and legal bills will have added up.

Booth’s legal woes came about after being forced out of her Habitat for Humanity townhouse when she lost her job.

The decision said Booth was a single mom and working as a chartered professional accountant in Victoria, living in a “small dark basement suite.”

After qualifying for a Habitat for Humanity program, she moved into a townhouse in late 2020. The program would see her pay 30% of her income as a mortgage to Habitat for Humanity and become the homeowner. Her monthly payment was just shy of $2,000, and she was obligated to complete 500 community volunteer hours for the charity and be employed.

In 2021, she took time off work sick, and her payments were halved. The date for getting the mortgage was extended.

Booth had to meet certain criteria to get the Habitat for Humanity mortgage, but in 2024, she lost her job and wasn’t eligible. She said she was “devastated” by this.

Habitat for Humanity kept pushing the deadline for the mortgage, but by May 2024 was unwilling to extend the grace period and began the process of evicting her.

Booth challenged the ruling at the Residential Tenancy Branch, which rejected her case, finding that the two sides didn’t have a landlord-tenant relationship.

She appealed the decision to the BC Supreme Court, which sided with her, calling the Residential Tenancy Branch’s decision “clearly irrational.”

However, Habitat for Humanity challenged the Supreme’s Court’s ruling, and the BC Court of Appeal then sided with the housing charity.

The court’s final move means Booth with have to pay both sides’ legal fees.

The decision didn’t say what she and her children now do for housing.