He wanted the province to fine his ex-landlord. Finding answers was a frustratingprocess

Sheltered, a CBC Investigates series, examines the housing crisis in Newfoundland and Labrador telling the stories of the people living it, while scrutinizing the policies and politics behind it.

After Caio De Naday Hornhardt got a same-day eviction earlier this year, the questions began and so did the search for answers.

De Naday Hornhardt was sure that what happened to him was against the law, and wondered how the people responsiblecould be fined.

Those fines are laid out in Section 51 of the Residential Tenancies Act, but he says his questions appeared to mystify residential tenancies officials.

"What about this Section 51 here, about a possible punishment? It's like you're talking about an alien, they get surprised about that."

De Naday Hornhardt spent weeks ricocheting from lawyers to residential tenancies to different levels of court.

"Provincial court was very helpful, they said I could lay a private information," he said.

That allows a private citizen to pursue a prosecution on their own something that is very rare.

De Naday Hornhardt planned to proceed, until he got a message back from the minister in charge and saw a CBC News headline about provincial plans to address an apparent gap in the legislation.

• N.L. planning to hire staffer so landlord and tenant violations can go to court

"They are trying to do something. They're planning to figure out a way for Section 51 to be enforced," he said.

"And on the email I received, it was written there like it should be done soon. I don't know when is soon. Hopefully soon is actually soon."

Last week, Digital Government and Service N.L. Minister Sarah Stoodley told a legislative committee that her department is "going to take more of a leadership role in making sure that the act is followed by landlords and tenants."

That includes starting to seek legal action against landlords and tenants "who meet potential criteria," and hiring a new dedicated staffer to help shepherd those cases to court.

The maximum financial penalties were jacked up in 2018, to deter people from breaking the rules.

But last fall, a CBC Investigates story found there is no evidence anyone has been fined, because no one in the department is responsible for moving those files along to the justice system.

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Instead, it falls to private citizens to go to court in an attempt to have fines imposed.

In January, the department confirmed its intention to plug that gap, after years of lobbying by local housing advocates.

Stoodley's comments last week provided some more details about the status of that work.

Sherwin Flight has been pressing the province to put teeth in the legislation for years.

"I do think it is something that is a responsibility of government," said Flight, who administers the Newfoundland Tenant and Landlord Support Group on Facebook.

Flight said the existing fines regime is not working.

"We've seen over the years the challenges with average people trying to take matters to court and how that doesn't work," he said.

"So it's good to see them finally take it seriously and do the work necessary to sort of put this into action."

De Naday Hornhardt agrees that the existing process is not functioning properly.

"The written law is very clear. But the way this law is enforced, well, it's not."

The province has not yet announced firm timelines on when any changes will happen.

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