Renson Transport: $150 a day, and 19 vehicles the receiver wants back

On December 15, 2024, a Mississauga truck and trailer repair business issued a notice of intention to retain a 2023 Great Dane 53-foot composite trailer. The notice named Renson Transport Ltd. as the trailer's registered lessee and Royal Bank of Canada as its registered owner, and it set out what S&S Truck & Trailers Services Ltd. said it was owed for the trailer: $11,215.25 including HST, of which $10,170.00 was storage at $150 a day. If the trailer was not redeemed by December 30, the notice said, S&S "shall have the right to retain or sell the article," per the Notice of Intention to Retain, Dec. 15, 2024, Motion Record Vol. 1, App. 5, pp. 80–81. The receiver's schedule records the trailer as transferred to S&S effective January 3, 2025, per the Motion Record Vol. 2, Oct. 9, 2026, App. 7, p. 545, and it was one of 19 tractors and trailers the repair business put in its own name that month, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 20, 24–25.

Renson, a trucking transport, logistics and brokerage company with its registered head office in Brampton, described itself on its website, as RBC's affiant quoted it, as a carrier that "utilizes a fleet of over 75 trucks to provide services all across Canada and the United States." Mark Arnold, RBC's senior manager for special loans and advisory services, swore on December 13, 2024 that the bank had demanded $2,778,375.09 under its non-leasing facilities on November 5, and on December 5 a further $2,072,748.96 owing under its leasing facilities as of December 3, both exclusive of legal fees, disbursements and accruing interest. The affidavit also says Renson had 60 registration families against it in the personal property registry as of November 3, and that since RBC's demand there had been over 171 new registrations, more than 165 of them under the Repair and Storage Liens Act and "the vast majority" by S&S, per the Affidavit of Mark Arnold, Dec. 13, 2024, paras. 1, 3–4, 12, 19–20, 22–23. On January 16, 2025, at a videoconference hearing at which no one attended for Renson, Justice Cudjoe approved the appointment: "Order granted as requested," per the Endorsement of Justice Cudjoe, Jan. 16, 2025, para. 1. The order appointed msi Spergel inc. receiver of Renson's assets, undertakings and properties under s. 243(1) of the BIA and s. 101 of the Courts of Justice Act, per the Receivership Order, Jan. 16, 2025, para. 2.

The notices and the permits

The receiver's First Report, dated October 8, 2026, is its first account to the court, and its longest section concerns S&S. The repair business asserted repairer's and storer's liens against 14 tractor trucks and five trailers owned or leased by Renson "in respect of repair and storage services allegedly provided in relation to those units"; the report's schedule lists Renson as owner of four and lessee of the other fifteen. S&S issued 11 notices of intention to retain on December 15, 2024, one on December 20 and seven on December 31, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 20–21 and App. 4. Based on the notices, the aggregate claimed was approximately $317,687.21 including HST, and approximately $183,060 of that "was attributable to storage charges alone," the balance being repair charges, lien registration fees, legal and courier charges and taxes, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, para. 22.

None of the vehicles was redeemed, the receiver understands. S&S then purported to retain them and "caused title to the Lien Vehicles to be transferred and registered in its name." The ownership permits put the transfers between January 2 and January 16, 2025, the last of them effective "the same date on which the Receivership Order was granted," per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 24–25. The receiver says the proof of service shows S&S was served with the application materials on December 23, 2024, so that in its view S&S had notice that a receivership order would be sought on January 16. It has not determined whether the transfers effective that day took place before or after the order was granted, it adds, and so has not determined whether any of them breached a stay of proceedings that may then have been in effect, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 26–27.

What the receiver found in the paperwork

S&S's counsel, Marryam Singh of A&M Lawyers Professional Corporation, gave the receiver the notices for all 19 vehicles, invoice packages for 18, change-of-ownership documents with "a small number of supporting affidavits," and "select Canada Post tracking printouts," per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 29–30. A schedule to the report takes the invoices and notices vehicle by vehicle and marks what the receiver considers deficient, per the Motion Record Vol. 2, Oct. 9, 2026, App. 7, pp. 537–538.

On the repairs, the receiver says that apart from the invoices S&S "has provided no independent evidence that repair work was in fact performed on any of the Lien Vehicles, such as work orders, repair reports or similar records," and that it produced no invoices at all for one 2016 Volvo tractor. The signed wording at the foot of most repair invoices, the report says, identifies neither the signatory nor the date, and both acknowledges the work as done and purports to authorize it. Each package also held a general authorization form purporting to authorize S&S "to repair the truck and or trailer described herein." According to the receiver, the form names no vehicle and no repairs, and the same or substantially the same form, each copy dated October 24, 2024 and appearing to bear the same signature, appears in every package, for different vehicles and repairs said to have been done at different times, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 32–35 and App. 4.

On the storage, none of the 18 storage invoices is signed for Renson or shows that Renson agreed to the charges, the receiver says. Those invoices carry a line the report calls the "Irregular Statement": "I acknowledge the right of sale and retention under part 1 of repair and storage lien act of ontario on vehicle $150/day." S&S has produced no agreement or other evidence, the receiver says, that the statement, "including the $150 daily storage rate," was communicated to or accepted by Renson, and the line does not appear on the repair invoices, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 36–38.

Every invoice is marked "NET 30 DAYS," the report says, which the receiver reads as payment falling due 30 days after the invoice date; in its reading, ss. 3(3), 4(7) and 17(1) of the RSLA then required S&S to wait out a further 60 days before proposing to retain. For 16 of the 19 notices the latest invoice included is dated December 14, 2024, so that on the receiver's analysis S&S could not have proposed to retain those vehicles until March 15, 2025 at the earliest, and the report says it issued all 16 notices, and purported to retain, before then. One storage invoice whose amount a notice counted, the report adds, was not issued until after S&S had issued that notice and transferred the vehicle to itself, per the First Report of the Receiver, Oct. 8, 2026, paras. 39–41. The receiver's schedule dates that invoice March 15, 2025, against a December 15, 2024 notice and a January 8, 2025 transfer of a 2018 Manac trailer, per the Motion Record Vol. 2, Oct. 9, 2026, App. 7, p. 560.