Crown Crest Leasing and Peoples Trust Company

This class action lawsuit alleges that companies run by CEO Lawrence Krimker, all breached Ontario’s Consumer Protection Act by failing to disclose the total amount that HVAC and HVAC-related equipment would cost under the “rental” contracts consumers were asked to sign. Further, these companies failed to disclose to consumers that Notices of Security Interests (encumbrances) with inflated amounts of thousands of dollars would be registered against their home titles as leverage to extract unconscionable buyout sums from consumers who need to sell or refinance their homes.

The lawsuit covers rental agreements for equipment such as furnaces, air conditioners, air purifiers, water heaters, water softeners, water purifiers, water treatment systems, water filters, boilers, air cleaners, humidifiers, chimney liners, duct cleaning services, filters, thermostats and other equipment or services offered under the rental contracts, or bundles of these goods and services.

In addition to other remedies, the class action is asking the court to declare that all these consumer agreements are unlawful and unenforceable under the Consumer Protection Act. The plaintiffs also ask for the removal of all of the unlawfully registered Notices of Security Interest from consumers’ homes.

The role of Peoples Trust Company became known to Class Counsel and the plaintiffs when in its capacity as one of Crown Crest’s creditors, Peoples Trust Company filed an application under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) which directly implicated the class action.

Peoples Trust Company is a co-lessor and financier of HVAC and HVAC-Related Equipment in the consumer marketplace and is alleged to have entered into numerous conspiratorial agreements, whereby it financed, required, approved, and controlled the predatory conduct of its co-lessors.

The lawsuit against Peoples Trust Company is being brought in relation to the existing proposed class action against Simply Group. The case alleges that Peoples Trust Company conspired to direct and facilitate the systemic non-disclosure of material and statutorily mandated information to consumers and imposed unconscionable contracts on unsuspecting consumers, including these companies’ regular practice of using unlawfully registered encumbrances on consumers’ home titles to extort unconscionable sums.

In order for an action to proceed on behalf of the entire class, a judge must decide whether the members of the proposed class have common issues, and whether a class action is the preferred way to resolve the issues. The process to decide these issues is known as the “certification motion”. If the judge is satisfied that the case meets all of the requirements for certification, he or she will issue an order which certifies the action as a class action.

The certification hearing for this class action has been scheduled for October 1, 2, and 3, 2024.

No. If the lawsuit is certified, and you are included in the class as defined, you are automatically included in the lawsuit. Registering on our website ensures you are provided timely updates and notices about how the case is progressing.
The defined class includes:

All individuals in Canada (except Quebec) who:

1. are or were at any time party to a consumer agreement for HVAC or HVAC-Related Equipment* with any person who directly or indirectly assigned that consumer agreement to one of the defendants between July 17, 2013 and the date of certification of this action or any other date that the Court deems appropriate (“Class Period”); and/or
2. against whose property the defendants registered, or caused to be registered, a security interest or other encumbrance on title, or the defendants otherwise owned or controlled such an encumbrance on title.

* “HVAC or HVAC-Related Equipment” means furnaces, air conditioners, air purifiers, water heaters, water softeners, water purifiers, water treatment systems, water filters, boilers, air cleaners, humidifiers, chimney liners, duct cleaning services, filters, thermostats and other equipment or services offered under the rental contracts, or bundles of these goods and services.

In order to make sure you are captured in the defined class, you would need to be a homeowner in Canada (except Quebec) subject to a rental agreement for HVAC and HVAC-related equipment with one of the following companies, or which has been transferred to one of the following companies:

• Crown Crest Capital Management Corp.
• Crown Crest Financial Corp.
• Crown Crest Capital Trust
• Crown Crest Capital II Trust
• Crown Crest Billing Corp.
• Crown Crest Capital Corp.
• Crown Crest Funding Corp.
• Sandpiper Energy Solutions
• Sandpiper Energy Solutions Home Comfort
• Simply Green Home Services (Ontario) Inc.
• Simply Green Home Services Inc.
• Simply Green Home Services Corp.
• Peoples Trust Company

IMPORTANT: If you are not captured by this class action, there are separate limitations periods that apply to you. You should contact a lawyer for individual advice.

NOSIs operate in the predatory HVAC market similarly to liens, and are used as financial collateral by lenders against affected consumers. In this case, they are being used to secure buyouts from consumers. The defendant companies are using NOSIs to charge consumers amounts far greater than the actual value of the equipment under the agreements.

In order to check if you have a NOSI on your title, you have to do a parcel registry search of your property in the way described below.

Note that the term “Notice of Security Interest” is specific to Ontario and the equivalent liens or encumbrances may be referred to in different terms based on the jurisdiction.

You can get a parcel registry search through the government, using the Ontario Land Property Records Portal. To use this portal, you must type in your municipality, search for a property, and enter your address into the “address” tab. Once you find your address, you can purchase the parcel registry search for around $40.00.

The parcel registry will give you the ownership history of your title, as well as note any mortgages, liens, and security interests that have been registered on your title. If there is a NOSI from one of the defendant companies, you are likely captured in our class definition.

Note that this process varies by jurisdiction.

Sotos LLP, as class counsel, currently acts for the class as a whole. Our goal is to help all of Ontarians affected by these companies’ scam to get out of these unlawful agreements and to remove the NOSIs from homeowners’ titles using the class action proceeding. Due to this, we are currently unable to act for consumers wishing to pursue their specific disputes with these companies on an individual basis.

If your situation is urgent, for example in situations where you are trying to sell or refinance your home, please consider the following options:

1. Complain about this company’s conduct to Consumer Protection Ontario. Here is their guide on how to complain: https://www.ontario.ca/page/door-door-sales-and-home-service-contracts
2. You can seek advice on your specific situation or any complaint or small claims documents from Pro Bono Ontario. Once you have read the above, you can contact Pro Bono Ontario to ask a lawyer for advice or to review your documents and provide comments on them. You can call them at: https://www.probonoontario.org/hotline/
3. For qualified individuals, you can also seek advice from the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE). ACE provides legal services for low-income older adults in the Greater Toronto Area (or outside the GTA in some circumstances). ACE’s legal services include summary legal advice, brief legal services, referrals, and legal representation. You can find out more at: https://www.acelaw.ca/