B.C. Supreme Court Justice Francesca V. Marzari has ordered B.C. realtor Alden Ashneil Chand to pay a Surrey couple, Amandeep Kaur Rahil and Jagvir Singh Rahil more than $285,000 for using their money to buy property for himself.
Chand was supposed to invest the Rahils’ money in condos in Surrey and Kelowna, however, he used the money as a down payment for a property in Aldergrove in his name.
The judge said: “I find that Mr. Chand also breached his agreements with the Rahils that he would use the funds they provided to invest in the Surrey Property, and later the Kelowna Property. Implicit in those agreements was that he would not use their funds to buy a property for himself.
“I also find that the Rahils have established unjust enrichment, based on the benefits and profits accrued by Mr. Chand following his breach of contract and use of the Rahils’ funds to purchase the Abbotsford Property [Aldergrove] in his own name.”
The judge said in her ruling: “In my view, Mr. Chand’s misconduct in this case is particularly repugnant and appropriately attracts an award of punitive damages for the purposes of denunciation and deterrence. With the exception of the punitive damages sought, the Rahils have sought nothing more than direct compensation of their financial loss, without regard to the distress Mr. Chand’s actions have caused them and their children. Mr. Chand had the benefit of their funds, and the house it bought him, for two years, and was living in that house during part of this litigation. In my view, compensatory damages alone are insufficient to express the court’s repugnance at Mr. Chand’s misconduct.”
The judge ruled that in total Chand must pay $285,800 to the plaintiffs as follows: $215,000, the total amount advanced by the Rahils to Chand; $42,000 in interest to date on the $190,000 advanced in September 2018; pre-judgement interest of $3,800 on the $15,000 advanced July 8, 2018, to the date of judgment and the $10,000 advanced September 19, 2018, to the date of judgment; and punitive damages of $25,000.
The judge said that the Rahils are also entitled to their costs of this action.
The judgment:
https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/25/01/2025BCSC0106.htm