News & Updates
Drouillard Lawyers 2025: Year in Review
December 18, 2025
The legal counsel at Drouillard Lawyers were involved in significant real estate transactions and litigation matters in 2025.
Real Estate Transactions
Drouillard Lawyers is pleased to show continued growth of its real estate transaction practice through 2025. Six of the real estate transactions Drouillard Lawyers was involved with made the list of Business in Vancouver’s Biggest Real Estate Deals of 2024 (published April 2025). This is up from five of Drouillard Lawyers’ transactions making the list for the Biggest Real Estate Deals of 2023, and one transaction making the list for the Biggest Real Estate Deals of 2022. We expect a significant number of our 2025 transactions will appear in Business in Vancouver’s Biggest Real Estate Deals of 2025 when it is published.
A highlight of 2025 was Drouillard Lawyers’ representation of the Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (“CAPREIT”) with respect to the sale of its leasehold interest in International Plaza in North Vancouver to the Nch’kay Development Corporation, the economic development group of the Squamish Nation, located on the reserve lands of the Squamish Nation.
Real Estate Litigation
Legal counsel at Drouillard Lawyers were involved in a number of litigation matters before the BC Provincial Court, the BC Supreme Court, and the BC Court of Appeal. These matters included appearing on behalf of manufactured home owners facing eviction of their entire manufactured home community on Indigenous reserve lands, contractual disputes regarding the purchase and sale of residential real estate and the development of residential real estate, and commercial leasing disputes.
Legal counsel at Drouillard Lawyers also represented both landlords and tenants in several applications before the Residential Tenancy Branch of British Columbia. Of particular note in 2025 was a successful application made by Drouillard Lawyers to the RTB on behalf of a landlord who wished to terminate all tenancies in an apartment building in order to complete significant repairs and renovations. This type of application is rare and difficult to achieve under the new legislation. Counsel also was involved in numerous successful additional rent increase applications to permit landlords to increase the rents in a building beyond the annual allowable amount to recover the costs of capital expenditures made to the rental building.
Michael Drouillard was qualified by the BC Supreme Court as an expert with respect to the professional practice standards that apply to real estate licensees.
Education
Throughout 2025, Michael Drouillard and Brett Love continued teaching their respective courses as part of the real estate licensing program at the Sauder School of Business at UBC. Michael also continued teaching courses to real estate licensees and mortgage brokers with the BC Financial Services Authority.
Also in 2025, Michael Drouillard presented to the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia and the Manufactured Home Park Owners Alliance of BC regarding a landlord’s obligations when a tenant dies during a residential tenancy and to LandlordBC about the additional rent increase application process to recover the costs of eligible capital expenditures made to the rental building.
Michael Drouillard Presents to the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC
December 4, 2025
Michael Drouillard presented a paper to the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC (CLEBC) at their 2025 Residential Real Estate Conference in Vancouver on the topic of residential landlord obligations when dealing with a deceased tenant.
CLEBC is a society that focuses on providing continuing legal education and information to practicing lawyers in British Columbia.
Michael Drouillard Presents to the Manufactured Home Park Owners Alliance of BC
October 4, 2025
Michael Drouillard presented to the Manufactured Home Park Owners Alliance of BC (MHPOA) at their AGM in Harrison Hot Springs on the topic of dealing with the estate of a deceased tenant in a manufactured home park.
The MHPOA is a trade association of manufactured home park owners in British Columbia, representing tens of thousands of manufactured home sites across the Province.
​
Sale of International Plaza in North Vancouver to Nch'kaý Development Corporation
September 10, 2025
Drouillard Lawyers acted for the Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust ("CAPREIT") with respect to the sale of its leasehold interest of International Plaza, located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, to Nch’kaý Development Corporation ("Nch’kaý"). Nch’kaý is the economic development group of the Squamish Nation.
​
International Plaza was built in 1975 and includes over 65,000 square feet of gross leasable area across 471 residential and 11 commercial units.
​
Recent Notable Litigation by Drouillard Lawyers
August 15, 2025
Recently, Drouillard Lawyers was involved, on a pro bono basis, in a decision that confirms a very basic common law right for tenants living on reserve land. This right is a reasonable opportunity to leave, after the tenancy is ordered ended, before being subject to enforcement or injunction proceedings.
Tenant rights can be next to non-existent on reserve land when the local First Nation hasn't adopted its own tenancy laws. There is no Federal tenancy law that applies by default. In these circumstances, tenants must rely on their tenancy agreement and the common law. The common law is harsh on tenants and complicated to apply.
In McEwen v. Songhees Nation, Victoria BCSC, S213686, our clients, residents of reserve land, were ordered evicted. The First Nation argued that our clients should be ordered to leave within several weeks, to remove their homes within several weeks, and that they should be permitted to cut off utilities, even in the face of evidence that it was physically impossible to comply with such an order, and even though cutting off utilities would create a chaotic circumstance and unnecessary turmoil.
The First Nation argued that allowing our clients a reasonable opportunity to leave may be permitted on non-reserve land, but that reserve land was different. In effect, they submitted that the special nature of reserve land fettered the court's inherent jurisdiction.
The First Nation also sought an injunction. This would have permitted the First Nation to enforce their eviction through contempt proceedings, even though most landlords in British Columbia enforce evictions through a civil enforcement agency which the landlord pays for privately, rather than the court's contempt power, which is a public resource.
Fortunately, the Court accepted our submission that it had an inherent jurisdiction "to fulfill the judicial function of administering justice according to law in a regular, orderly and effective manner". In other words, it is one thing to declare a landlord has a property right, and another to have a court enforce that right. A court does not have to make an order that is not reasonably capable of compliance, even if the matter involves reserve land.
Our clients were given additional time to leave, and an injunction was not ordered.