Enforcement & Collections
Winning an order is one battle. Collecting on it is another - and it's the one we're built for.
We enforce monetary orders and judgments in both the BC Provincial Court and the BC Supreme Court — for landlords, tenants, businesses, and professionals across British Columbia.​
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What are Enforcement & Collections?
Having an order and enforcing it are often two separate battles. An RTB arbitrator or a judge can rule in your favour, but that order doesn't collect itself. In practice, enforcing an order can take as much time, energy, and persistence as winning it did.
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Most often this falls on a landlord trying to recover a monetary order from a tenant who has moved on and can't easily be found. But it cuts both ways: tenants who win compensation or the return of a deposit can face the same wall when a landlord simply refuses to pay. Either way, an unpaid order is just a piece of paper until someone makes it count.
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That's the work we do.
How an order gets enforced
There's no single path to collecting on an order, the right approach depends on what the other party owns, earns, and where they are. Once an RTB monetary order is filed in the BC Provincial Court (or once you hold a court judgment), the tools available can include:
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Garnishing wages or bank accounts to intercept money at the source.
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Examinations in aid of execution - compelling the debtor to disclose, under oath, what they earn and own.
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Registering the judgment against assets, so a debt follows the debtor's property.
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Payment orders and enforcement through the courts where other avenues stall.
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Which of these makes sense, and in what order, is a strategic decision, not a form-filling exercise. The wrong move wastes money chasing a debtor who has nothing to take; the right one recovers what you're owed efficiently.
How we can help
There's no fixed formula for enforcement, and we don't pretend there is. For us, success means the best resolution, in the least time, at the lowest cost to you — and sometimes that means telling you honestly when pursuing a debtor isn't worth the spend.
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We assess collectability first. Before you invest in enforcement, we'll give you a realistic read on whether — and how — the order can actually be collected.
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We choose the right tool for the situation. From filing an RTB order in court through to garnishment and asset registration, we match the remedy to the debtor.
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We work across both court levels. Provincial Court and Supreme Court, depending on what your matter requires.
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Beyond tenancy. While enforcing RTB orders is a large part of what we do, our enforcement and collections work isn't limited to landlords and tenants. We regularly act for businesses and professionals pursuing unpaid judgments and debts in both Provincial and Supreme Court. If you're holding an order or judgment that someone won't pay, we can help you collect it.
Protecting yourself before it's a problem
The easiest collection is the one you never have to chase. Whether you're a landlord structuring a tenancy or a business extending terms, there are steps you can take at the outset - and during the relationship - to make any future order far easier to enforce. If you'd rather get ahead of the problem than clean it up later, that's a conversation worth having early.
