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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile 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,\u201d Justice Barbara Fisher said in a Sept. 4 decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ruling doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Booth\u2019s legal woes came about after being forced out of her Habitat for Humanity townhouse when she lost her job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision said Booth was a single mom and working as a chartered professional accountant in Victoria, living in a \u201csmall dark basement suite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2021, she took time off work sick, and her payments were halved. The date for getting the mortgage was extended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Booth had to meet certain criteria to get the Habitat for Humanity mortgage, but in 2024, she lost her job and wasn\u2019t eligible. She said she was \u201cdevastated\u201d by this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Booth challenged the ruling at the Residential Tenancy Branch, which rejected her case, finding that the two sides didn\u2019t have a landlord-tenant relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She appealed the decision to the BC Supreme Court, which sided with her, calling the Residential Tenancy Branch\u2019s decision \u201cclearly irrational.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Habitat for Humanity challenged the Supreme\u2019s Court\u2019s ruling, and the BC Court of Appeal then sided with the housing charity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court\u2019s final move means Booth with have to pay both sides’ legal fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision didn\u2019t say what she and her children now do for housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The case bounced from court to court and the legal fees won’t be cheap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":9146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"","_duplicate_post":false,"rank_math_canonical_url":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1680,541,543],"tags":[],"region":[322,323,324,325],"class_list":["post-9145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/9145\/bc-woman-evicted-by-habitat-for-humanity-after-losing-job-now-paying-legal-fees\/","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"BC woman evicted by Habitat for Humanity after losing job, now paying legal fees","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/9145\/bc-woman-evicted-by-habitat-for-humanity-after-losing-job-now-paying-legal-fees\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/news\/9145\/bc-woman-evicted-by-habitat-for-humanity-after-losing-job-now-paying-legal-fees\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-pexels-yaqui-16880297.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-pexels-yaqui-16880297.jpg"},"articleSection":"Featured","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Bulmer"}],"creator":["Ben Bulmer"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNhome","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-09-14T17:03:53Z","datePublished":"2026-09-14T17:03:53Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T17:03:55Z"},"rendered":"