“A scene from a horror movie” is how a couple from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, described their rental property after their previous tenant left after a three-month stay.
Owners Jillian Smith and Shawn Douglas now face significant repair costs as they try to put the pieces back together.
From piles of beer cans to rotten food, broken windows and holes in the walls and ceilings, it’s beyond what they could imagine.
“To see all the money we had invested in it destroyed in about three months, it was upsetting,” Douglas said.
The couple says the tenant was recommended to them by Shyft House, a Yarmouth nonprofit that works with homeless youth.
The house had been sold last summer, but they decided not to hand over the keys until the new year to let another longtime tenant downstairs stay for a few more months.
In the meantime, they welcomed a new tenant downstairs.
Get the latest national news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts sent directly to you as they happen.
Then, they say, things changed.
“My phone started ringing. It was my real estate agent, it was my lawyer, it was the RCMP. It was phone call after phone call after phone call,” Smith said.
“From what we understand, the first situation was: all kinds of damage to the front of the house, broken windows and broken walls. »
After the first month, Smith claims the tenant stopped paying rent and police frequently responded to calls to the address. An eviction order was eventually issued, but the damage was already done.
Smith says they’re speaking out because, while the RCMP and the Nova Scotia Residential Tenancy Commission have been helpful, they feel the legislation has “gone too far” and landlords aren’t as supportive. protected as they could be.
“The legislation really ties people’s hands because there are so many formalities,” she said, while highlighting the delays they have faced in the eviction process, although it is considered as an emergency situation.
All of this, she said, could deter other landlords from providing affordable housing.
The couple says it was the only rental property they owned and they bought it to offer below-market rent to new Canadians, retirees and people with special needs.
“We covered the heating, water, electricity. We had a modest rent. We wanted to be those owners who gave people a helping hand. And we’ll never do that again,” Smith said.
“So someone will come here and buy a house like this and now they’ll charge double the rent and they’ll get it. And the reason they do it is because they have to have something in the bank to deal with situations like this. »
Shyft House declined an interview when contacted by Global News.
The couple estimates the repairs will cost at least $5,000.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.