Dropping a fine on a tenant

[tenyardrambo]

Here is the situation( I am very curious on the result).

The real estate company that I work part time for on the weekends gave a tenant(residential) a $400 fine. The tenant didn't want to pay so they got a caveat. So the total with the fine was approx $900. The tenant got a lawyer so the company I work for dropped the fine. Now the company I work for is trying to force the tenant to pay for the legal fees. Aren't we just going in circles?

[Minnie]

A fine for what, and why?

And I didn't think a person could be forced to pay the legal fees unless that was specifically outlined in a judgement, but who knows? I just can't figure out how they'd enforce that, aside from maybe keeping some sort of damage deposit, but I imagine landlord/tenant might have something to say about that.

[Deegee]

The tenant got a caveat? Or the real estate company placed a caveat on the landlord's house? What?

[onetwo_threefour]

The OP is severely lacking in detail. Is the real estate company you work for a property management company managing a condo property or managing a lease? Are we talking about a 'fine' as in a fine for breach of condo by-laws, or some penalty for a breach of a residential tenancy agreement? Different answer depending on the details. If it's a breach of condo by-laws, both the fine and the solicitor-client costs may be enforceable, but not sure why they would have dropped the fine in that case. I suspect it is a breach of condo bylaws, otherwise the caveat makes little sense, as it doesn't really make sense to caveat a residential tenant's interest in a property.

If the company is simply managing a lease, the caveat really doesn't make sense, the fine is 'probably' unenforceable as a penalty clause, and whether the LL is entitled to solicitor client costs is dictated by the lease, but not always enforced by the courts even if it is in there.

[darklord700]

According to the Condominium Property Act, section 36(1), if you don't pay the fine, the board has to go through the provincial court to collect it. They can't just willy nilly transfer the fine from the tenant to you.

[photon]

I was going to say fines in general aren't allow in Alberta for tenants, anything charged to the tenant has to be damages in line with the costs to the landlord (i.e. you can't just charge a $100 / day late fine for late rent because that isn't in line with what the damages to the landlord would be), but it sounds like this is not a landlord/tenant situation.