Ontario Court of Appeal decision

October 23, 2015

Ontario Court of Appeal decision – limit of lien rights under the Repair and Storage Liens Act

 

This matter concerned the limits of lien rights under the Repair and Storage Liens Act. The appellant had made a credit purchase of summer tires and rims for his vehicle. Advantagewon was the company that provided the credit. It had prepared its paperwork in a way that it thought would allow Xclusive Performance Group, the company that had sold the tires and rims to the appellant, to have a lien under the Repair and Storage Liens Act on the vehicle for which the tires and rims were purchased and to then assign that lien to Advantagewon.  When the purchaser fell behind in payments, it seized the vehicle and would only return it for an exorbitant amount of money.

The Court of Appeal agreed with Paul Gemmink’s argument that Advantagewon did not have the right to seize the vehicle since it did not have lien rights.  In order to get such rights, Xclusive, the supplier, would have had to actually install the tires.  Simply saying in the paperwork that Advantagewon would have lien rights did not make it so.  2015 ONCA 709