VANCOUVER — A Richmond man being sued by his parents in a dispute over a family home is denying allegations that he and his wife have made life intolerable for the parents.
In November, Yu Chung Chiu and Li Li Pao Chiu filed a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court against Simon Wan Hou Chiu and Lee May Priscilla Li.
The parents, who are retired, say they provided their son with US$100,000 toward the down payment for a home on Gilley Avenue in Burnaby, which they lived in before the family moved together to a property on Mclean Avenue in Richmond.
When the Mclean Avenue home was purchased, the parents claim that it was understood the arrangement for the parents to live with their son would continue and that they would live with their son and his wife for the rest of their lives.
The parents say that throughout their time living together they contributed to helping the family, including cooking for the defendants and their children, cleaning, making contributions to the maintenance of the properties, purchasing groceries and incurring other household expenses.
But in the summer what had been a loving and happy relationship began to deteriorate and in September the son and his wife began to demand that the parents leave the property, say the parents.
“With their entire life savings tied up in the Gilley property and now the Mclean Avenue property, the plaintiffs have nowhere to go. The parties have reached an untenable living situation.”
Title to the Mclean home is held by the son and his wife but the parents are seeking a declaration that ‘beneficial’ ownership in the property should be made for them in a proportion to be determined by the court.
The parents are seeking a certificate of pending litigation that would freeze title to the home, as well as an order that the property be sold.
But the defendant son and his wife have filed a response to the civil claim in which they refute the allegations of the parents and make a number of claims of their own.
The defendants say there was never any agreement that the parents would be beneficial interest-holders in the Mclean Avenue home.
They say the parents have lived with them for almost 10 years and have not contributed toward groceries, household and maintenance expenses, and have not been cooking and cleaning for them.
There was never an agreement that the parents would live with them for the rest of their lives, say the son and his wife.
The US$100,000 was converted to Canadian dollars and, from the converted funds, CDN$100,000 was put into the Gilley property with the rest being provided back to the plaintiffs, they say.
“When the Gilley property was sold the plaintiffs were specifically told and aware that they would not be on the title of Mclean property,” says the response. “It was made clear to the plaintiffs that Mclean property was the property of the defendants.”
The defendants, who say the parents have benefited from living with them free-of-cost and have been taken care of and taken on various vacations to various destinations, deny making the living situation for the parents intolerable.
“The plaintiffs have acted in an aggressive and violent manner towards the defendants in front of the defendants’ minor children.”
In an email sent by Matthew Smith, a lawyer for the parents, the parents said the circumstances of their difficult family situation were accurately set out in the lawsuit.
“We are perplexed and saddened by our son’s allegations in the response to civil claim, which we deny. We hope that our son will come to show reason and allow us to continue this chapter of our life with dignity.”
