Enforcing a CRT Order Against a Landlord, Tenant, or Strata in BC

The CRT ordered your landlord to refund your deposit. Or it told your tenant to pay for the damage they left behind. Or it resolved a strata dispute in your favour with a monetary award. And now the other side is ignoring the order.

This is the most common shock for CRT winners in landlord-tenant and strata cases: the tribunal does not collect the money for you. You need to take the order through the court enforcement system yourself.

CRT Monetary Orders — The Same Enforcement Path

For a monetary CRT order within the Provincial Court's $35,000 limit, the enforcement process follows this path. A monetary order above that limit must be filed in the BC Supreme Court:

1. Use the validated copy of the CRT order that the tribunal issues alongside the decision at no extra cost.
2. File the validated order at a BC Provincial Court registry closest to where the debtor lives or carries on business, or where the events giving rise to the claim occurred. Pay the $21 filing fee.
3. The order is now docketed as a court judgment with the same legal force as any Provincial Court small claims judgment.

From this point, every enforcement tool under the Court Order Enforcement Act is available to you: garnishing orders, payment hearings, orders for seizure and sale, and land title registration.

Landlord Won't Refund the Deposit

Deposit disputes are the single most common category of CRT landlord-tenant claims. The CRT orders the landlord to return the security deposit (often plus pet damage deposit), sometimes with interest — and the landlord simply does not pay.

Your strongest enforcement tool here depends on what you know about the landlord:

If you know their bank: File a Garnishing Order After Judgment to attach the funds directly. You need to serve the specific bank branch where the landlord holds the account.

If the landlord owns the rental property: Register the judgment against their property at the Land Title and Survey Authority (LTSA). The charge stays on the title, and the landlord cannot sell or refinance without dealing with your judgment first. For a landlord who owns investment property, this is one of the most effective pressure points.

If you know nothing about their assets: Schedule a Payment Hearing (Form 12). The court summons the landlord to appear and disclose their bank accounts, income, and property under oath. Failure to appear can result in an arrest warrant.

Tenant Won't Pay the Damage Claim

Enforcing against a former tenant is often harder than enforcing against a landlord. Tenants move, change jobs, and may not own property in BC. But the tools still apply:

• Garnishment works if you know the tenant's employer or bank. Wage garnishment attaches a portion of each paycheque until the judgment is satisfied, subject to BC's statutory exemptions.
• Payment hearing is the discovery tool when you do not know what the tenant has. They must appear in court and provide a sworn Statement of Finances.
• If the tenant has left the province, see Enforcing a BC Judgment in Another Province for the interprovincial enforcement route.

Strata Disputes

Strata disputes resolved by the CRT often involve monetary awards related to bylaw fines, insurance deductible recovery, or property damage. The enforcement process is the same — file the validated order at Provincial Court and use the standard tools.

One wrinkle: if the CRT issued a non-monetary order (for example, ordering a strata corporation to repair common property or comply with a bylaw), that order cannot be enforced through Provincial Court garnishment or seizure. Non-monetary CRT orders must be filed in the BC Supreme Court, where enforcement options include contempt proceedings. This is a different process with higher costs, and legal advice is worth considering.

RTB Orders Specifically

Monetary orders from the Residential Tenancy Branch follow the same filing path: take the RTB order to Provincial Court for amounts up to $35,000, or Supreme Court for higher amounts (RTB rent-penalty awards can reach up to $65,000 for 12-month penalties). Once filed, the standard enforcement tools apply.

The Full Enforcement Sequence

The enforcement tools work the same regardless of whether the underlying dispute was landlord-tenant, strata, or a straightforward small claim. The BC Order Enforcement Guide walks through every step — from the validated copy request through garnishment, seizure, land registration, and case closure — with the forms, fees, and deadlines for each.

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