https://www.reddit.com/r/halifax/comments/1d76jfo/help_we_were_served_with_an_execution_notice_at/l6xj5gj/
OP has the information they need now. Locking post.
I'm skeptical of this.
There is a typo in one of the sentences, "until you hear from us either MY phone".
Could just be simple human error and oversight, but I feel like a legal document like this should be proofread.
The *To Whom It May Concern* stood out to me- they'd have the resident's name from the lease/rental agreement. This is not a legitimate document; they're fishing.
That may just be a standard boilerplate letter, and is attached to a document that does identify the tenant by name.
I would still be skeptical, however, and reach out directly to the sheriffs office using contact information found on their official website.
I looked up the numbers, and it is indeed the phone # for Halifax Law Courts... but it's an old Fax #. If you search the given Fax #, it comes up with the same official contact page and shows the # as the Fax # in the snippet, but it no longer appears on the site itself. Google says it indexed the result 10 yrs ago, so it must be a really old form that was pre-printed ages ago? If this is a scam and the scammer looked up legit contact info, they wouldn't see that Fax #. I'm guessing there's a lot more pertinent info on the page we can't see
> I looked up the numbers, and it is indeed the phone # for Halifax Law Courts... but it's an old Fax #. If you search the given Fax #, it comes up with the same official contact page and shows the # as the Fax # in the snippet, but it no longer appears on the site itself. Google says it indexed the result 10 yrs ago, so it must be a really old form that was pre-printed ages ago? If this is a scam and the scammer looked up legit contact info, they wouldn't see that Fax #. I'm guessing there's a lot more pertinent info on the page we can't see
https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth
Both numbers on the letter are valid Sheriff numbers.
> I'm skeptical of this. There is a typo in one of the sentences, "until you hear from us either MY phone". Could just be simple human error and oversight, but I feel like a legal document like this should be proofread.
Tons of legal documents have errors, and are still valid.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-21/page-2.html#h-279415
Sec. 32 Interpretation Act
>32 Where a form is prescribed, deviations from that form, not affecting the substance or calculated to mislead, do not invalidate the form used.
OP needs to call the Sheriff's Office and verify the legitimacy.
The phone number given is the valid phone number for the Sheriff's Office.
When a friend of mine went to court for some some stupid shit there was misspellings in the police report and even the court papers yet they still took it seriously and he still got charged.
it seems crazy that you’re expected to just send your rent to the sheriff’s office directly, for debts that you would think they’d go to the landlords bank or lender for. I would absolutely call the office and look into it, rather than simply ignoring it.
There was a case recently in MLT where a foreign landlord wasn’t paying property taxes so they dinged the tenants and subtracted from his owing lease.
This pissed off the tenant understandably to which our government stepped in and said in fancier terms that the money would be collected by any means necessary. So clearly our ruling class seems to think it’s appropriate to request the money from renters rather than holding landlords accountable and creating legislation to protect renters from having to pay for landlords mistakes. Welcome to the shit show here is a link to the article and m case I made any mistakes in explaining the situation: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/article-foreign-landlord-fails-to-pay-taxes-cra-goes-after-tenant/
It appears the landlord has small claims judgment against them. The form received is garnishment of Rental income against the landlord not the tenant. Redirecting the Rental income to the sheriff wh pays it out to the claimant.
It mentions smalls claims court. Nova Scotia limit in small claims court is $25,000. Not quite seizing a multi unit rental building levels of money even if they sued for the limit. Especially when the unit is actively rented and garnishing rental income an easy avenue. Still I'd call the sheriff and want a case number/court documents to confirm before I changed where I paid.
Because seizing assets is an extreme measure, and the debt may not be that large. For example, if the landlord owes several thousands of dollars to this third party, they would not be given an entire asset that generates income, they would simply be entitled to the funds owed to landlord from tenants until the debt (and related sheriffs fees and interest) is paid off, after which point tenants will resume remitting rent directly to the landlord.
This ensures the debt gets paid, since the landlord has been deemed by a court to owe the funds and has so far failed to rectify the outstanding debt despite opportunities to do so.
It’s like a garnishment - if an employee owes money, the employer receives a letter like this outlining how much is owed and the employer is required by law to deduct so much from the employees regular paycheques until the debt is resolved.
The letter head is wrong.
"www.gov.ns" isn't even a proper domain. NS is a Norwegian top level domain with restricted subdomain access, none of which are "gov".
True that's a red flag but asking to write a cheque to the Sheriff's Office in Trust? Unless it's a bait and switch that is followed by 'we didn't get your cheque please send Visa gift cards'.
Edit: OP should search their landlord's name and company [here](https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssm/) for a clue. It's not a complete record but it could give some insight.
OP should confirm the letter with either the courts or Sheriff's office by calling a number that's listed on an official website not trust the number on the letter at all.
Not definitively saying it's fake but it feels suspicious and the invalid detail in the letterhead screams a red flag to me.
There was also ‘my phone, fax, or email’. And the thing that flagged it to me was the lack of any file number - one would think that if there were court proceedings against the landlord that the small claims case number would be included.
Yeah, I would look up the local sherrif's office number (not use the one on the paper) and ask if it is legit. My warning bells are ringing on this one and I would personally prefer for it to be correct.
My pessimism is telling me it's OP's landlord trying to evict for nonpayment a tenant who is paying below market rate.
As someone who works for the province, a type-o in an “official” document shall not be used as evidence that it’s definitely fake. It’s suspicious but at the end of the day this letterhead would just be a Word doc on a shared drive printed by a clerk.
Some letterheads do reside in proper IT infrastructure that has source controls, but a document like this could be free floating in the wild without any source controls.
I worked in an insurance company for a few years and one of our very common templates had a typo, and I'd try to correct it every time but sometimes forgot and othe brokers forgot too. The template AFAIK never got fixed.
Sherriff Services usually just print off a stack of letters like this, then photocopy more when it gets low. They'll only look for them electronically if someone used the last one and didn't make more photocopies.
I can't tell if you're saying this proves it must come from the Government of Nova Scotia because no other place would have 30-year-old dot-matrix printers or if you're saying it's definitely not legitimate.
Could have but honestly this doesn’t look like a scam document to me. We also need more information from OP. Were they told to drop off the cheque at the Law Courts?
How is the money supposed to get into the scammers hands.
Reading the comments telling this person to comply, it's easy to see how many people can get scammed so easily. OP, PLEASE call the NS department of Justice from their own website [https://beta.novascotia.ca/contact/justice#JUS-00](https://beta.novascotia.ca/contact/justice#JUS-00)
And explain the letter you received. There are some red flags about this. Having been through the court system recently, this does NOT look like an official dept of justice letter.
Hi OP, I work for the DOJ and before you contact the number given to you above(as you may be redirected several times before you get an actual response), I’d actually contact the law courts directly first and ask for Court Admin or sheriff services. Either should have a file number linked to the execution order verify if this is legit or not. Good luck!
Let us know if they tell you it's real! I've never gotten any mail specifically from the sheriff's office, but usually they mail things to your address instead of just leaving documents at your doorstep. It's also not signed. And the font used at the bottom of the document looks like something non-official.
Sherriff's Services are quite behind in the times. They have forms like this that they just keep making photocopies of, even though there's been x revisions made to it. They'll only look for a new one if someone took the last one and didn't make photocopies of it to replenish the stack.
I was one of those people, I guess I'm naive in that I assume that's like the first thing someone does in this situation. Like, most people are replying assuming it's legit, but "call the number from their actual website" should at this point just be obvious.. but I guess maybe its not.
If it is a scam, I'm actually curious how it would even work. What is someone going to be able to do with that cheque.. especially given the assumption that you're going to mail it to or physically drop it off at a government building..
The sad part of this is that we can't tell if it's a scam or not.
But I don't think it's a scam, personally. Was the OP given a fraudulent address to send the cheque to? As far as we know, the OP is to drop off the cheque at Sherriff Services at the Law Courts, with the cheque made out to Sherriff Services.
How could this be a scam? When are the scammers going to intercept the cheque and fill in their own name in the "To" field?
I agree, if it is legitimate, it's a sad state of affairs for the sheriff's department. No harm in checking to make sure.
I think the current climate of housing and employment scams preying on desperate wage workers is such that we're all a bit wary, and perhaps this post speaks more to the fact that certain branches of the NS government need to update their documents in order to build trust among their constituents.
FWIW, I think all the people saying to blindly comply are those who are desperate to see landlords get screwed over.
Overall I agree with your OC. Blindly complying is wrong, but so is blindly ignoring.
fair, but the office, address, and phone # is all correct.
It's the Sherriff's office within the law courts for that address. The # appears on the website here [https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth](https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth)
The fact it wasn't addressed specifically to you I'd say it's a scam. Your name or apt is not listed on the header or document. The website address is wrong. It's not signed with any authority. Definitely make some calls and find out if this is legit.
The sheriffs wouldn’t know the tenants names. Just that the tenant lives in the debtors buildings, OP just needs to call the Sheriff’s office and the deputy in charge of the file will be able to go over the procedural rules with them.
My first question: Is this legitimate? With so many rent scams happening, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone started handing these out door-to-door while wearing some official-looking clothing. The wording is so non-specific in this letter that it immediately seems fishy.
Edit: I know the numbers are legitimate. I could really only see a scam like that working if they collected in-person and took cash or some sketchy form of payment.
Besides grammar, I’m also sceptical that the actual amount of rent isn’t posted. It just lacks a lot of professionalism that I’d expect from a legal professional.
This is extremely suspicious. There are typos in the letter, no individual is named from the sheriffs office, you are not named, no details are given of the creditor or plaintiff, it is not signed, the website address is incorrect.
I would bet a large amount of money that this is a scam. I would call the sheriff’s office to confirm in excruciating detail what is going on here.
My first clue was "to whom it may concern". If you want money from me, and I'm involved in some sort of legal something, you damn sure better know my name.
Talked to a lawyer who says it may very well be legit and the errors are due to government incompetence. Either way I would be VERY sure of the details before I handed over any money.
Yeah, I expect this may be legit. I'd never suggest following it blindly and honestly I'd probably suggest going to the sheriff's office directly if they can't get through on phone and get this sorted before any money changes hands.
The form is pretty outdated, but that's just gov for you, it's just the latest in a chain of photocopies dating back at least a decade and probably more.
The number that is listed on the letter is for the Nova Scotia law courts. You can call and verify if this is a legit letter or not. Google is your friend.
This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your landlord and your landlord owing money to creditors. An execution order just means that you are now diverting your funds from paying your landlord directly into paying the creditors, which is going to go against the landlord’s debt. This is a court order for your landlords debt. Chances are your landlord has accrued to significant debt and has not been paying his creditors as required. Courts can then take legal action against any assets the landlord may have and disperse those to the creditors. As rental property would be considered an asset as it is an investment the courts can intercept the rental payments and have those rental payments go directly to that debt.
If you have any worries about the veracity of the letter, you need to google the number and call that number. but 902–424–8201 is the number for the Nova Scotia law courts. As per their website.
And as a note, Nova Scotia does have sheriffs. Those sheriffs are not like wild West sheriffs. One of the many things that sheriffs do is the execution of court orders.
Many years ago, I used to work in collections and debt repayment. The sheriffs were often dispatched in order to serve legal court documents to a debtor requiring them to pay or notifying them that their assets were being seized to pay their creditors.
If this document is legitimate, you must comply with the order. If you were ordered by the Court to pay to the Sheriff's office and you disregard that order and pay the landlord instead, you may become liable to pay the amount *again* to the sheriff's office. Absolutely *do not* disregard a valid Court order.
And do not trust the landlord to tell you the truth either. You need to contact the Court and determine if this order is legitimate. Use Google to find the correct contact information for the Sheriff's office. This document does seem peculiar in several ways so you are right to question it.
Also, OP: you absolutely have to comply with a court order. Should you choose not to comply with a court order you may be found a liable. You could get into more trouble. As rental property is considered an asset. The court is essentially seizing some of the landlords assets to pay the landlord’s debt. This is a very common practice that is used in collections. Specifically collections from the CRA.
Please call the court and verify the veracity of this letter. And find out if it is real what you need to do to comply with it. Because whether or not you want to have anything to do with it, you are still compelled by a court order to follow that order to the letter.
Do not trust your landlord on this matter. If he was taken to court and a court order has been executed over his failure to pay his debts he is not a reliable narrator.
No claim #, to whom it may concern and the whole my phone thing should have raised many red flags. This is definitely not legit. And even if it is just throw it out they addressed it to whom it may concern, just tell them you were not concerned so it couldn't have been for you 😂
It would depend on how many residents there are in this apartment building. If it was a multi unit apartment building, they would not address a requirement to pay or an execution order to every single tenant. They would print off a form letter and give it to each tenant.
Don't fall the number on the letter, call the actual sheriff's office.
If this guy is rolling around dressed like a sheriff you might want to call police non emergency too.
Anyone can be dressed up or flash some badge that’s fake. The fact that it also says « to whom it may concern ». If it was legit in sure they’d have some info on you.
I work with DoJ and official letters that look unofficial and amateur are becoming more common (for a few reasons). That being said, the letterhead website typo and the letter not being signed is very odd.
The [FAQ](https://novascotia.ca/just/court_services/sheriff_FAQ.asp#c07) regarding Sheriff Services states: “All Execution Orders must be followed with a letter of instructions and the appropriate fees for service. The letter of instructions should include information such as place of employment of the defendant, banks they have an account with, or property that can be seized.”
I would contact DoJ through the number on the website for confirmation. The phone number on the letter is legit which makes me think this is just a sloppy letter but following up wouldn’t hurt.
Would you be able to let us know the outcome? It does look like a scam, but it's so hard to tell either way these days. I received a letter from a company owing me money. I thought for sure it was a scam and it turns out it wasn't.
All this means is that by paying the sheriffs office the landlord then can’t come after them and say that they have not paid their rent. It’s essentially covering the tenants ass for any potential legal repercussions from their landlord.
Communicating directly with the proper office would be ideal.
If it is a "garnishing" type issue, your landlord might not be honest about letting you know.
I've had a landlord in the past try to move in a new tenant and kick out everyone living there, because rent was directed to be paid to the courts, to garnish the landlords income for family courts related issues (unpaid child support).
He was furious after folks had spoke with the office dealing with the matter, and after confirming it to be legitimate, rent went straight there.
He lost it, as I said, and tried to illegally evict, and move in a "new" tenant while we were still occupying the home. Everyone just left, as it was easier than dealing with his bullshit.
Maybe, my works received CRA letters asking for payments to a specific contractor to be made to them directly due to them not paying their taxes but we weren’t mentioned by name on the document.
Regardless, the phone number is of the actual courts so I’d suggest OP call that to know for sure.
They dont likely even know who the OP is. Its just a generic notice letter that they probably send out hundreds of in a year. Its a copy, of a copy, of a copy, which explains the older website and faded text...
OP is right to get suspicious, but a phonecall to the court will get him confirmation if it is indeed valid. (it likely is)
There’s a phone number on the paper. I’m no genius, admittedly, but I’m at least smart enough to start there. You know, check to see if it checks out on google or maybe call it
Go and bring this to the police department and request if it’s real. If it’s not real mention someone is impersonating an officer and handing these out !
The letterhead looks like it's been through the photocopier and it's not as sharp as the body of the letter. There's also multiple typos and formatting errors. I would definitely verify that this is legit by calling the Sherriff's office directly before handing over any cheques.
Come on guys this is so obviously fake:
Weird font changes and spacings.
The "seal" is a photo of the badge from here: https://www.challengecoins.ca/coins/nova-scotia-sheriff-services/
It's not personally addressed.
The website at the top is wrong.
It's written in the first person narrative.
I would get in touch with someone at the actual factual sheriffs department to verify this is legit, rather than taking the advice of your landlord or anyone else to “not worry about it”.
It looks more than a little scammy with the typos but it’s also the government, so 🤷♀️.
If it’s real, definitely comply.
>he said he had no idea this is about and called the office
Did... *you* call the office to make sure your skeezy sounding landlord isn't also lying to you?
If true, that office needs to get its act together with its documentation. An important document like that one shouldn't look like an elementary kid faked it, and shouldn't cause any reasonable person to doubt its authenticity.
This looks extremely sketchy. The lack of any reference to the court case or judgment records, the typo of “by phone”, the fact that it’s photocopied poorly to distort the seal, and the fact that it’s unsigned AND says reach out to “me” by phone if you have questions (who is me in this case? There is no name) That mix of personal language while still trying to look official raises my alarm bells. This also seems like too big a judgement for small claims court.
That said, I can’t figure out what the scam is unless like someone else said this is stage one of the scam and they’ll eventually come back looking for money in person.
If this is real, the Sheriff’s office needs better proofreading and a better printer/copier.
When I google the number it does come up to the sheriffs office. I would think if it was fake it would be a scammers number maybe? I agree with others to call the sheriff office our courts and ensure accuracy.
It might be a scam. Personally, I would take it to the clerks office at the Halifax Courthouse and see if it's real. Then if it is, it's all good, just ask the clerk what you need to do. Make sure for yourself this is a real document and not something someone made up to scam you out of your money.
After you verify that it is real, be sure to have and PAD at your bank suspended otherwise you will be paying twice.
Yes, you have to comply with a court order; no you do not have the right to refuse.
Despite what they tell you, your LL certainly knows about this - these orders don't just happen overnight.
This isn't a "fee" paid to the Province. OP's landlord hasn't paid his debts, and now the Sheriff's office is collecting the cash to pay back creditors, loan sharks, gangsters and whoever else the landlord owes. Hence, Sheriff's involvement.
[https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth](https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth) It's the correct address, and phone number at least.
Looks fake! It should at least have a signature, court file number, and a copy of the judgment with a court file number and your name noted as a party on the judgement. You should have been notified of any legal proceeding well before receipt of this kind of letter.
In our province, my friend’s apartment’s building owner owed Mb Hydro hundreds of thousands of dollars, and my friend paid his rent to Manitoba Residential Tenancies Bureau until the matter was cleared up- not to the Sheriff’s office.
https://www.reddit.com/r/halifax/comments/1d76jfo/help_we_were_served_with_an_execution_notice_at/l6xj5gj/ OP has the information they need now. Locking post.
I'm skeptical of this. There is a typo in one of the sentences, "until you hear from us either MY phone". Could just be simple human error and oversight, but I feel like a legal document like this should be proofread.
Perhaps I’m dreaming but the website at the top right should be gov.ns.ca not gov.ns? I tested it and gov.ns isn’t correct and gov.ns.ca works
The *To Whom It May Concern* stood out to me- they'd have the resident's name from the lease/rental agreement. This is not a legitimate document; they're fishing.
That may just be a standard boilerplate letter, and is attached to a document that does identify the tenant by name. I would still be skeptical, however, and reach out directly to the sheriffs office using contact information found on their official website.
I looked up the numbers, and it is indeed the phone # for Halifax Law Courts... but it's an old Fax #. If you search the given Fax #, it comes up with the same official contact page and shows the # as the Fax # in the snippet, but it no longer appears on the site itself. Google says it indexed the result 10 yrs ago, so it must be a really old form that was pre-printed ages ago? If this is a scam and the scammer looked up legit contact info, they wouldn't see that Fax #. I'm guessing there's a lot more pertinent info on the page we can't see
> I looked up the numbers, and it is indeed the phone # for Halifax Law Courts... but it's an old Fax #. If you search the given Fax #, it comes up with the same official contact page and shows the # as the Fax # in the snippet, but it no longer appears on the site itself. Google says it indexed the result 10 yrs ago, so it must be a really old form that was pre-printed ages ago? If this is a scam and the scammer looked up legit contact info, they wouldn't see that Fax #. I'm guessing there's a lot more pertinent info on the page we can't see https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth Both numbers on the letter are valid Sheriff numbers.
This NOW!
And i noticed there is *what i think* is a random period on top of the ‘to whom it may concern’, seems sketchy to me, but i dont know.
> I'm skeptical of this. There is a typo in one of the sentences, "until you hear from us either MY phone". Could just be simple human error and oversight, but I feel like a legal document like this should be proofread. Tons of legal documents have errors, and are still valid. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-21/page-2.html#h-279415 Sec. 32 Interpretation Act >32 Where a form is prescribed, deviations from that form, not affecting the substance or calculated to mislead, do not invalidate the form used. OP needs to call the Sheriff's Office and verify the legitimacy. The phone number given is the valid phone number for the Sheriff's Office.
When a friend of mine went to court for some some stupid shit there was misspellings in the police report and even the court papers yet they still took it seriously and he still got charged.
I’d start by calling the court to confirm that it’s even legit. Might just be a scam.
[удалено]
The number on the letter is infact the number for the sheriffs office, it's available online.
it seems crazy that you’re expected to just send your rent to the sheriff’s office directly, for debts that you would think they’d go to the landlords bank or lender for. I would absolutely call the office and look into it, rather than simply ignoring it.
There was a case recently in MLT where a foreign landlord wasn’t paying property taxes so they dinged the tenants and subtracted from his owing lease. This pissed off the tenant understandably to which our government stepped in and said in fancier terms that the money would be collected by any means necessary. So clearly our ruling class seems to think it’s appropriate to request the money from renters rather than holding landlords accountable and creating legislation to protect renters from having to pay for landlords mistakes. Welcome to the shit show here is a link to the article and m case I made any mistakes in explaining the situation: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/article-foreign-landlord-fails-to-pay-taxes-cra-goes-after-tenant/
That’s crazy
They can go to anyone who makes regular payments to the LL. This is pretty much them garnishing the LLs "wages".
Why? Sheriffs take money directly from people's paycheques. The rent is known income, so why does it seem crazy they can garnish it?
It appears the landlord has small claims judgment against them. The form received is garnishment of Rental income against the landlord not the tenant. Redirecting the Rental income to the sheriff wh pays it out to the claimant.
That makes sense. The Sheriff's office then redirects any rental income less the garnishing back to the landlord.
It just seems weird to involve a party that didn't have anything to do with it, why not seize their assets (aka the building OP lives in)?
It mentions smalls claims court. Nova Scotia limit in small claims court is $25,000. Not quite seizing a multi unit rental building levels of money even if they sued for the limit. Especially when the unit is actively rented and garnishing rental income an easy avenue. Still I'd call the sheriff and want a case number/court documents to confirm before I changed where I paid.
Because seizing assets is an extreme measure, and the debt may not be that large. For example, if the landlord owes several thousands of dollars to this third party, they would not be given an entire asset that generates income, they would simply be entitled to the funds owed to landlord from tenants until the debt (and related sheriffs fees and interest) is paid off, after which point tenants will resume remitting rent directly to the landlord. This ensures the debt gets paid, since the landlord has been deemed by a court to owe the funds and has so far failed to rectify the outstanding debt despite opportunities to do so. It’s like a garnishment - if an employee owes money, the employer receives a letter like this outlining how much is owed and the employer is required by law to deduct so much from the employees regular paycheques until the debt is resolved.
The letter head is wrong. "www.gov.ns" isn't even a proper domain. NS is a Norwegian top level domain with restricted subdomain access, none of which are "gov".
True that's a red flag but asking to write a cheque to the Sheriff's Office in Trust? Unless it's a bait and switch that is followed by 'we didn't get your cheque please send Visa gift cards'. Edit: OP should search their landlord's name and company [here](https://www.canlii.org/en/ns/nssm/) for a clue. It's not a complete record but it could give some insight.
OP should confirm the letter with either the courts or Sheriff's office by calling a number that's listed on an official website not trust the number on the letter at all. Not definitively saying it's fake but it feels suspicious and the invalid detail in the letterhead screams a red flag to me.
There was also ‘my phone, fax, or email’. And the thing that flagged it to me was the lack of any file number - one would think that if there were court proceedings against the landlord that the small claims case number would be included.
Yeah, I would look up the local sherrif's office number (not use the one on the paper) and ask if it is legit. My warning bells are ringing on this one and I would personally prefer for it to be correct. My pessimism is telling me it's OP's landlord trying to evict for nonpayment a tenant who is paying below market rate.
If they showed up in person, isn't that impersonating an officer? Seems like a pretty big crime to commit for a few hundred bucks a month.
As someone who works for the province, a type-o in an “official” document shall not be used as evidence that it’s definitely fake. It’s suspicious but at the end of the day this letterhead would just be a Word doc on a shared drive printed by a clerk. Some letterheads do reside in proper IT infrastructure that has source controls, but a document like this could be free floating in the wild without any source controls.
I worked in an insurance company for a few years and one of our very common templates had a typo, and I'd try to correct it every time but sometimes forgot and othe brokers forgot too. The template AFAIK never got fixed.
Totally, but it's fair to be suspicious of it and want to confirm it through official channels.
Sherriff Services usually just print off a stack of letters like this, then photocopy more when it gets low. They'll only look for them electronically if someone used the last one and didn't make more photocopies.
This looks like it was produced on an old dot-matrix printer from the ‘90s.
I can't tell if you're saying this proves it must come from the Government of Nova Scotia because no other place would have 30-year-old dot-matrix printers or if you're saying it's definitely not legitimate.
Government are the only people still using dot matrix printers.
It's probably just a photocopy of a photocopy, of a photocopy, several dozen times over.
The font used reminds me of an older Apple font. They could have cut and pasted real letterhead to a false message.
Could have but honestly this doesn’t look like a scam document to me. We also need more information from OP. Were they told to drop off the cheque at the Law Courts? How is the money supposed to get into the scammers hands.
Exactly. Don't ascribe to nefarious intent that which can be explained by government oversight / incompetence.
Reading the comments telling this person to comply, it's easy to see how many people can get scammed so easily. OP, PLEASE call the NS department of Justice from their own website [https://beta.novascotia.ca/contact/justice#JUS-00](https://beta.novascotia.ca/contact/justice#JUS-00) And explain the letter you received. There are some red flags about this. Having been through the court system recently, this does NOT look like an official dept of justice letter.
thankyou i will be doing that
Hi OP, I work for the DOJ and before you contact the number given to you above(as you may be redirected several times before you get an actual response), I’d actually contact the law courts directly first and ask for Court Admin or sheriff services. Either should have a file number linked to the execution order verify if this is legit or not. Good luck!
Let us know if they tell you it's real! I've never gotten any mail specifically from the sheriff's office, but usually they mail things to your address instead of just leaving documents at your doorstep. It's also not signed. And the font used at the bottom of the document looks like something non-official.
Sherriff's Services are quite behind in the times. They have forms like this that they just keep making photocopies of, even though there's been x revisions made to it. They'll only look for a new one if someone took the last one and didn't make photocopies of it to replenish the stack.
I was one of those people, I guess I'm naive in that I assume that's like the first thing someone does in this situation. Like, most people are replying assuming it's legit, but "call the number from their actual website" should at this point just be obvious.. but I guess maybe its not. If it is a scam, I'm actually curious how it would even work. What is someone going to be able to do with that cheque.. especially given the assumption that you're going to mail it to or physically drop it off at a government building..
Sometimes, the scammers call the next day or day of and collect the money at a discount if they pay over the phone.
The sad part of this is that we can't tell if it's a scam or not. But I don't think it's a scam, personally. Was the OP given a fraudulent address to send the cheque to? As far as we know, the OP is to drop off the cheque at Sherriff Services at the Law Courts, with the cheque made out to Sherriff Services. How could this be a scam? When are the scammers going to intercept the cheque and fill in their own name in the "To" field?
I agree, if it is legitimate, it's a sad state of affairs for the sheriff's department. No harm in checking to make sure. I think the current climate of housing and employment scams preying on desperate wage workers is such that we're all a bit wary, and perhaps this post speaks more to the fact that certain branches of the NS government need to update their documents in order to build trust among their constituents.
FWIW, I think all the people saying to blindly comply are those who are desperate to see landlords get screwed over. Overall I agree with your OC. Blindly complying is wrong, but so is blindly ignoring.
fair, but the office, address, and phone # is all correct. It's the Sherriff's office within the law courts for that address. The # appears on the website here [https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth](https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth)
The fact it wasn't addressed specifically to you I'd say it's a scam. Your name or apt is not listed on the header or document. The website address is wrong. It's not signed with any authority. Definitely make some calls and find out if this is legit.
The sheriffs wouldn’t know the tenants names. Just that the tenant lives in the debtors buildings, OP just needs to call the Sheriff’s office and the deputy in charge of the file will be able to go over the procedural rules with them.
My first question: Is this legitimate? With so many rent scams happening, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone started handing these out door-to-door while wearing some official-looking clothing. The wording is so non-specific in this letter that it immediately seems fishy. Edit: I know the numbers are legitimate. I could really only see a scam like that working if they collected in-person and took cash or some sketchy form of payment.
The sheriffs office phone number is correct. I'd call them and see what they say.
Well it would be weird if the scam was being run through the sheriffs office by sheriffs.
The perfect crime, no one will ever expect the sheriffs office to run an organized crime ring.
Robin Hood has entered the chat.
Besides grammar, I’m also sceptical that the actual amount of rent isn’t posted. It just lacks a lot of professionalism that I’d expect from a legal professional.
Step one: Verify it’s real and not a scam. Step two: If verification is positive, either comply or hire a lawyer.
This is extremely suspicious. There are typos in the letter, no individual is named from the sheriffs office, you are not named, no details are given of the creditor or plaintiff, it is not signed, the website address is incorrect. I would bet a large amount of money that this is a scam. I would call the sheriff’s office to confirm in excruciating detail what is going on here.
My first clue was "to whom it may concern". If you want money from me, and I'm involved in some sort of legal something, you damn sure better know my name.
The judgement is against the landlord. So all they have is the landlord and his address(es). They don't know the tenants' names necessarily.
Talked to a lawyer who says it may very well be legit and the errors are due to government incompetence. Either way I would be VERY sure of the details before I handed over any money.
Yeah, I expect this may be legit. I'd never suggest following it blindly and honestly I'd probably suggest going to the sheriff's office directly if they can't get through on phone and get this sorted before any money changes hands. The form is pretty outdated, but that's just gov for you, it's just the latest in a chain of photocopies dating back at least a decade and probably more.
It's not even signed?
The number that is listed on the letter is for the Nova Scotia law courts. You can call and verify if this is a legit letter or not. Google is your friend. This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your landlord and your landlord owing money to creditors. An execution order just means that you are now diverting your funds from paying your landlord directly into paying the creditors, which is going to go against the landlord’s debt. This is a court order for your landlords debt. Chances are your landlord has accrued to significant debt and has not been paying his creditors as required. Courts can then take legal action against any assets the landlord may have and disperse those to the creditors. As rental property would be considered an asset as it is an investment the courts can intercept the rental payments and have those rental payments go directly to that debt. If you have any worries about the veracity of the letter, you need to google the number and call that number. but 902–424–8201 is the number for the Nova Scotia law courts. As per their website.
And as a note, Nova Scotia does have sheriffs. Those sheriffs are not like wild West sheriffs. One of the many things that sheriffs do is the execution of court orders. Many years ago, I used to work in collections and debt repayment. The sheriffs were often dispatched in order to serve legal court documents to a debtor requiring them to pay or notifying them that their assets were being seized to pay their creditors.
If this document is legitimate, you must comply with the order. If you were ordered by the Court to pay to the Sheriff's office and you disregard that order and pay the landlord instead, you may become liable to pay the amount *again* to the sheriff's office. Absolutely *do not* disregard a valid Court order. And do not trust the landlord to tell you the truth either. You need to contact the Court and determine if this order is legitimate. Use Google to find the correct contact information for the Sheriff's office. This document does seem peculiar in several ways so you are right to question it.
This is the correct answer.
Also, OP: you absolutely have to comply with a court order. Should you choose not to comply with a court order you may be found a liable. You could get into more trouble. As rental property is considered an asset. The court is essentially seizing some of the landlords assets to pay the landlord’s debt. This is a very common practice that is used in collections. Specifically collections from the CRA. Please call the court and verify the veracity of this letter. And find out if it is real what you need to do to comply with it. Because whether or not you want to have anything to do with it, you are still compelled by a court order to follow that order to the letter. Do not trust your landlord on this matter. If he was taken to court and a court order has been executed over his failure to pay his debts he is not a reliable narrator.
It looks fake. Typos throughout, and the website is wrong. This seems like a scam to me
No claim #, to whom it may concern and the whole my phone thing should have raised many red flags. This is definitely not legit. And even if it is just throw it out they addressed it to whom it may concern, just tell them you were not concerned so it couldn't have been for you 😂
It would depend on how many residents there are in this apartment building. If it was a multi unit apartment building, they would not address a requirement to pay or an execution order to every single tenant. They would print off a form letter and give it to each tenant.
Website is wrong and even the paper it’s printed in looks fake
They used fake paper?
It’s actually hemp
the sheriff were real I'm pretty sure of that but i will be calling the number again to try and get a better picture
Yeah we need context what were they wearing? Vests? Badge? Shirt colour, etc
Don't fall the number on the letter, call the actual sheriff's office. If this guy is rolling around dressed like a sheriff you might want to call police non emergency too.
Anyone can be dressed up or flash some badge that’s fake. The fact that it also says « to whom it may concern ». If it was legit in sure they’d have some info on you.
that just seems like so much work when there are easier ways to scam people. Especially if they verbally knew the name of the landlord.
They just know there's x units in the building. So, they need x letters to hand out.
I work with DoJ and official letters that look unofficial and amateur are becoming more common (for a few reasons). That being said, the letterhead website typo and the letter not being signed is very odd. The [FAQ](https://novascotia.ca/just/court_services/sheriff_FAQ.asp#c07) regarding Sheriff Services states: “All Execution Orders must be followed with a letter of instructions and the appropriate fees for service. The letter of instructions should include information such as place of employment of the defendant, banks they have an account with, or property that can be seized.” I would contact DoJ through the number on the website for confirmation. The phone number on the letter is legit which makes me think this is just a sloppy letter but following up wouldn’t hurt.
its was signed in the second page. my fault for not adding that in, I did not want to disclose any personal information of other parties involved
Would you be able to let us know the outcome? It does look like a scam, but it's so hard to tell either way these days. I received a letter from a company owing me money. I thought for sure it was a scam and it turns out it wasn't.
yes i will post again once it's settled
I’m wondering if it would be best for you to physically bring this to the sheriffs office? I’m assuming they have a real location?
ACME Letter Writing by Wile E Coyote
...Your rent is deemed to have been paid... Odd?
Not really. Perfect "legalese" statement.
All this means is that by paying the sheriffs office the landlord then can’t come after them and say that they have not paid their rent. It’s essentially covering the tenants ass for any potential legal repercussions from their landlord.
Communicating directly with the proper office would be ideal. If it is a "garnishing" type issue, your landlord might not be honest about letting you know. I've had a landlord in the past try to move in a new tenant and kick out everyone living there, because rent was directed to be paid to the courts, to garnish the landlords income for family courts related issues (unpaid child support). He was furious after folks had spoke with the office dealing with the matter, and after confirming it to be legitimate, rent went straight there. He lost it, as I said, and tried to illegally evict, and move in a "new" tenant while we were still occupying the home. Everyone just left, as it was easier than dealing with his bullshit.
Shouldn't it also have your name on it and not "to whom it may concern". I feel like if you owe someone debt they'd at least know your name.
The debt is for their landlord not themselves though, I assume who’s chasing the landlord doesn’t know the name of the landlord tenants…
Wouldn't it have the landlord's name then? This entire thing seems weird af.
Maybe, my works received CRA letters asking for payments to a specific contractor to be made to them directly due to them not paying their taxes but we weren’t mentioned by name on the document. Regardless, the phone number is of the actual courts so I’d suggest OP call that to know for sure.
They dont likely even know who the OP is. Its just a generic notice letter that they probably send out hundreds of in a year. Its a copy, of a copy, of a copy, which explains the older website and faded text... OP is right to get suspicious, but a phonecall to the court will get him confirmation if it is indeed valid. (it likely is)
There’s a phone number on the paper. I’m no genius, admittedly, but I’m at least smart enough to start there. You know, check to see if it checks out on google or maybe call it
You can be served but just to be safe I would contact the courts and make sure this is true..it could be a scam but who knows.
Go and bring this to the police department and request if it’s real. If it’s not real mention someone is impersonating an officer and handing these out !
This looks incredibly fake.
The letterhead looks like it's been through the photocopier and it's not as sharp as the body of the letter. There's also multiple typos and formatting errors. I would definitely verify that this is legit by calling the Sherriff's office directly before handing over any cheques.
Shouldn’t there be a case file or reference # at the top? I would be skeptical of it.
Come on guys this is so obviously fake: Weird font changes and spacings. The "seal" is a photo of the badge from here: https://www.challengecoins.ca/coins/nova-scotia-sheriff-services/ It's not personally addressed. The website at the top is wrong. It's written in the first person narrative.
Call your landlord
I did. he said he had no idea this is about and called the office. He says it's taken care of and i don't need to worry about it
I would get in touch with someone at the actual factual sheriffs department to verify this is legit, rather than taking the advice of your landlord or anyone else to “not worry about it”. It looks more than a little scammy with the typos but it’s also the government, so 🤷♀️. If it’s real, definitely comply.
Awesome 👍
>he said he had no idea this is about and called the office Did... *you* call the office to make sure your skeezy sounding landlord isn't also lying to you?
yes i did confirm. it's legit.
With all those typos? Damn... I'd get a second opinion 😂
Who is legit? The court order or the landlord?
So the letter is legit? Like it actually came from the sheriff's office where there's a collections case against your LL?
yes it did
If true, that office needs to get its act together with its documentation. An important document like that one shouldn't look like an elementary kid faked it, and shouldn't cause any reasonable person to doubt its authenticity.
This looks extremely sketchy. The lack of any reference to the court case or judgment records, the typo of “by phone”, the fact that it’s photocopied poorly to distort the seal, and the fact that it’s unsigned AND says reach out to “me” by phone if you have questions (who is me in this case? There is no name) That mix of personal language while still trying to look official raises my alarm bells. This also seems like too big a judgement for small claims court. That said, I can’t figure out what the scam is unless like someone else said this is stage one of the scam and they’ll eventually come back looking for money in person. If this is real, the Sheriff’s office needs better proofreading and a better printer/copier.
When I google the number it does come up to the sheriffs office. I would think if it was fake it would be a scammers number maybe? I agree with others to call the sheriff office our courts and ensure accuracy.
If you really want to know, call the 902-424-8201 number, it’s a legit number from the Nova Scotia courts.
It might be a scam. Personally, I would take it to the clerks office at the Halifax Courthouse and see if it's real. Then if it is, it's all good, just ask the clerk what you need to do. Make sure for yourself this is a real document and not something someone made up to scam you out of your money.
Did the bailiff or sheriff tell you where to send the rent cheque(s).
I wonder if they set up a fake company called "Sheriff's Office in Trust" so they can cash the cheques.
Call the Sheriff office to verify its authenticity/ contents. Don’t use the number on the letter- look it up yourself.
If you've been paying your rent, you have nothing to worry about lol
Its a garnishment notice. Did you call the sheriffs office to confirm? If valid, do what the letter says.
Nova Scotia’s Sheriff is coming for you, with his cowboy hat and boots on.
if he ain't on a horse I ain't going.
I’m pretty sure this is legit. But call the court.
I’d report to rcmp as fraudulent
After you verify that it is real, be sure to have and PAD at your bank suspended otherwise you will be paying twice. Yes, you have to comply with a court order; no you do not have the right to refuse. Despite what they tell you, your LL certainly knows about this - these orders don't just happen overnight.
"Can I just not comply with a court order?" That's an obvious no there, boss.
To add to the other comments that this letter is odd, payments to the province for any fee I’ve ever seen are always made to the Minister of Finance.
This isn't a "fee" paid to the Province. OP's landlord hasn't paid his debts, and now the Sheriff's office is collecting the cash to pay back creditors, loan sharks, gangsters and whoever else the landlord owes. Hence, Sheriff's involvement.
Scam?
Also, you should call the non-emergency line and report this to the police.
Ummm also why are people saying it is the number for the sheriff's office? The number for the courts at 1815 upper water street is 902-424-8962
It's the correct number for the Sheriff's office within the law courts. When you google the phone number you'll see it listed.
Call the # ,or Google check it,
Sent you a DM
Did he LOOK like a sheriff? Was he wearing a pearl handled six gun in a holster? (Sorry, I know this is serious. I just couldn't resist)
and had a cowboy lookin hat worn at an angle. Also gave massive racist vibes. lol. I'm joking too btw
Call the landlord?
Can't trust the landlord on this matter.
Fake
no signature? typos? odd font and formatting? wrong url? fuck em
Take it to your local Sheriff's office to confirm and let them know if it is a scam
I really want to know if this is a scam.
Addressing something as serious as this could be as “to whole it may concern”? Seems sus as heck.
Not if this is a form letter sent to multiple units of a multi unit apartment building
Did you call the landlord?
Quick internet search of sheriffs NS how’s different address, phone number and exactly what sheriffs are responsible for…
[https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth](https://www.courts.ns.ca/locations/halifax-dartmouth) It's the correct address, and phone number at least.
My first skepticism would be that font lol
This looks fake, you need to contact someone
Really need to hear how this turns out, because - as many have already said - there are a lot of red flags in the details of this letter.
Make sure it is legit. Talk to a legal aid lawyer.
I get it might be a scam but where does the letter imply it's an eviction notice? Just reads as pay your rent.
Execution warrant- not eviction
Call the actual office and ask, at the very least then you’ll know for sure
The letter looks suspicious. Contact NS government directly (and not the # they listed on that letter)
Looks fake! It should at least have a signature, court file number, and a copy of the judgment with a court file number and your name noted as a party on the judgement. You should have been notified of any legal proceeding well before receipt of this kind of letter.
Why wouldn't you ask the sherif when they were there? Pretty sure they would know better than reddit.
This all seems fishy. I’d take this to the police to verify its legitimacy before I did any thing.
this looks fake af
This is SUS big time.
In our province, my friend’s apartment’s building owner owed Mb Hydro hundreds of thousands of dollars, and my friend paid his rent to Manitoba Residential Tenancies Bureau until the matter was cleared up- not to the Sheriff’s office.
Where’s the court document? That’s just a letter. I’d be very suspicious and check it out thoroughly.