A Hong Kong businesswoman is suing her ex-boyfriend in B.C. after her admitted attempt to circumvent the province's foreign buyers’ tax backfired.
Jennie Wu claims her former partner, flight attendant Johnny Chu, has refused to move out of her Richmond home since breaking up with her in August.
Unfortunately for her, the property and mortgage are both in Chu's name.
According to her lawsuit, Wu paid for the home back in February, but had her then-boyfriend sign the paperwork because he's a local.
That allowed her to sidestep the extra 15 per cent tax on foreign purchasers – but has now also left her living a cautionary tale for other would-be homebuyers from outside Canada.
The pair only started dating about four months before the home purchase, according to the suit. Though they had met previously, it wasn't until they ran into each other in November, in the business class section of a flight Chu was working, that they hit it off.
Less than one year later, he notified her "through electronic chat message that their relationship was over," the lawsuit states. At that point, he'd been living in the home for about six months.
Wu claims she has since asked him repeatedly to move out and transfer the property into her name, to no avail. Her suit is seeking an order to have Chu do both immediately, plus pay her punitive damages.
In the meantime, she continues to stay at the home with him while in Canada, though the lawsuit notes they "do not sleep together but separately in different beds."
Her ex-boyfriend has yet to file a statement of defence, and none of the allegations against him have been proven in court.
