Community Legal Assistance Society - BC Judicial Review Self-Help Guide

Choosing which Interim Stay Application to Make

If you decide to pursue a judicial review and ask for an interim stay to put your eviction on hold, the process will be different depending on how far away your eviction date is. The eviction date is the date and time listed on the order of possession when you must give up your rental unit.

If you are applying for an interim stay, there are 2 different approaches depending on how much time you have left before your eviction date:

  1. A regular interim stay application; or
  2. A without notice interim stay application.

1. Regular interim stay application

A regular interim stay application is suitable when you have enough time to apply for an interim stay within the regular court timelines. You can use a regular interim stay application if your eviction date is far enough away that you can get all your court documents prepared, filed and served more than 2 weeks before the order of possession date. If you take this approach you will have to:

  • Pick a hearing date that is on or before the eviction date, and put that date in your “notice of application” form;
  • Prepare and file your court documents as soon as possible;
  • Serve your documents at least 8 business days before the hearing date (see important note below);
  • Go in front of a judge on the hearing date and ask for an interim stay; and
  • Serve the interim stay order (if you get it) on your landlord.

Important note: In calculating “at least 8 business days” before the hearing date, do not include either the day of the hearing, or the day you serve. Also, keep in mind that a “business day” is any day when the court registry is open (which usually means any week day that is not a statutory holiday). For example, if you are setting a hearing for a Wednesday, you will have to file and serve the court documents by the Thursday nearly two weeks earlier, assuming there are no statutory holidays those weeks.

2. A without notice interim stay application

A without notice interim stay application is necessary when the effective date of the order of possession is less than 2 weeks away. In a without notice interim stay application, you will ask the court for an interim stay without giving your landlord and the other parties any formal legal notice of your application because you do not have time to do so within the regular court timelines.

If you make a without notice interim stay application you will have to:

  • Prepare and file your court documents as soon as possible; and
  • Go in front of a judge, usually on the same day you file the court documents, and ask for an interim stay without notice to the other parties.

Important Note: Do not intentionally wait until shortly before the eviction date to prepare your documents. If you are able to file a regular interim stay application, you should do so. The without notice option is for when you do not have enough time to get a interim stay under the regular timelines.

How to decide which application to use

To decide which option you should take, figure out when you can have all of your court documents prepared, filed and served. Consider these points:

  1. It might take quite a while to prepare your court documents. This will affect how soon you can file and serve them.
  2. If you cannot pay the court fees, you will have to speak to a judge or master about a fee waiver before you can file your documents. If you are filing at a smaller registry, there may be a delay before you can speak to a judge or master, which will determine when you can file your documents. You should talk to the registry to find out when you will be able to speak to a judge or master about your fee waiver so that you can file your documents.

This flow chart may help you decide which interim stay application to choose:

JudicialReviewGuideEvictions-plusAppA_October2015

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Site by the Community Legal Assistance Society. Content available under Creative Commons CC BY-NC licence. This guide is made possible by funding from the British Columbia Ministry of Justice and the Law Foundation of British Columbia. This guide was originally produced by David Mossop, Q.C.
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