The Simple Investor: a receiver for ten rental properties, North Bay to Windsor

On October 20, 2026, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) issued an order appointing AlixPartners Restructuring, Inc. receiver of all the assets, undertakings and properties of ten companies in The Simple Investor group, according to the Notice and Statement the receiver issued on October 30 under ss. 245(1) and 246(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Each company is the registered owner of one residential rental property, which the notice says is its sole asset. SIREG Holdings (North) Inc. owns 330-598 Oakwood Avenue and 1321-1361 Burns Street in North Bay; SI 2500 Brant Inc. owns 2500 Brant Street in Burlington; SIREG 5581 Heritage Inc. and SIREG 3438 Sinnicks Inc. each own a property in Niagara Falls; SIREG Brock Street Inc., SIREG Pelletier Street Inc., SI 280 Park Inc. and SI 280 Erie Inc. own four in Windsor; SIREG 236 Margaret Inc. owns 236 Margaret Avenue in Wallaceburg; and SIREG 300 Park Inc. owns 300 Park Street West in Dresden (Notice and Statement of the Receiver, Oct. 30, 2026, paras. 1–2 and App. "A").

HMT Holdings Inc., an affiliate of Harbour Mortgage Corp., a private mortgage lender with its head office in Toronto, had applied for that appointment by a notice of application issued October 15 under court file CL-26-00000439-0000. Under s. 243(1) of the BIA and s. 101 of the Courts of Justice Act it asked for AlixPartners as receiver over all the assets and undertaking of the ten, including their real property, and for an order lifting the stay that arose when Sinnicks filed a notice of intention to make a proposal (Notice of Application (Application Record, Tab 1), Oct. 15, 2026, p. 1 and paras. 1(a)–(b), 4). Sinnicks was the only one of the ten to have filed one, HMT's affidavit said (HMT affidavit (Application Record, Tab 2), Oct. 14, 2026, para. 29). The receivership order itself is not among the filings read for this piece, so the appointment, the debtors and the properties are given here as the receiver's notice states them. The same day's order ending the proposal period for 16 other group companies, which left out Sinnicks and the owner of the head office, was reported here on October 22.

Three loans and ten mortgages

HMT's evidence is an affidavit sworn October 14 by Harbour Mortgage's chief investment officer. Harbour Mortgage made its first loan to the group in 2013, the affidavit says, and the three loans outstanding when it was sworn were advanced to finance property acquisitions and to refinance earlier mortgages on the same properties (HMT affidavit, paras. 1, 18). For each loan it gives a principal balance and the amount it says is currently due and outstanding. The largest, loan 26090, has a principal balance of $21,650,000 and four borrowers, the North Bay, Burlington and two Niagara Falls companies, with $22,331,848 due by the affidavit's account; its four mortgages were dated and registered on September 3, 2026. Loan 26024 went to the four Windsor companies, secured by mortgages registered on March 10, 2026, with a principal balance of $15,400,000 and, the affidavit says, $14,807,356.99 due. The oldest mortgages, registered on November 27, 2020 against the Wallaceburg and Dresden properties, secure loan 20056: $5,625,000 of principal and, on the affidavit's figures, $5,745,812.09 due (HMT affidavit, para. 19). Combined, the respondents owed HMT $42,885,017 as of September 24, the affidavit says, a figure reported here on October 15 (HMT affidavit, para. 4). Three guarantees, given by various group companies and by the group's principal personally, back the debt, and HMT holds general assignments of rent registered against each property (HMT affidavit, para. 20).

The properties, the affidavit says, are multi-unit residential rental complexes, townhouses in some cases and apartment buildings in others, held mostly by single-purpose companies. They were acquired with the intention of converting them into condominiums, "as per the Simple Investor modus operandi," but only the Burlington property has been converted, and one other is relatively close to completing its conversion (HMT affidavit, paras. 10–11, 17). The affiant understands that the income the properties generate collectively is not sufficient to fund their expenses and service the mortgages registered against them (HMT affidavit, para. 12).

Harbour's counsel issued demands and notices of intention to enforce security against each of the ten, dated September 25, 2026 (the affidavit gives September 26), with separate demands on the guarantors. Payments due from the respondents on all three loans were then returned NSF on October 5 and October 6, "[a]dditional events of default" in the affidavit's words. When it was sworn, it says, no communications had been received by Harbour or its counsel from any representative of the respondents (HMT affidavit, paras. 5, 34–35, Exs. "B" and "K").

Who else is on title

The receiver's notice sets out, property by property, the parties holding registered mortgage security, with a warning attached: the amounts "are the principal amounts registered on title and do not necessarily represent the amounts currently outstanding," and the table "does not purport to establish the relative priority of the registered charges." HMT is on all ten, registered for $21,650,000 on each of the North Bay, Burlington and two Niagara Falls properties, $15,400,000 on each in Windsor and $5,625,000 on the Wallaceburg and Dresden properties, and the receiver understands that the HMT credit facilities are cross-collateralized across multiple properties (Notice and Statement of the Receiver, para. 4). HMT's affidavit adds that the debt is not cross-collateralized with any group company beyond the ten (HMT affidavit, para. 13).

Three other companies appear in the notice's table, and one individual. Q Real Estate Asset Income Fund is registered for $3,646,532.67 against the North Bay property. Olympia Trust Company's registered principal is $454,750 against that property and against each of the two in Niagara Falls. The Simple Mortgage Investment Corporation is registered for $2,305,000 against the Burlington property and $2,200,000 against the one in Wallaceburg, and an individual for $750,000 against Burlington. The table shows no mortgagee but HMT on the four Windsor properties and the one in Dresden (Notice and Statement of the Receiver, para. 4).

HMT's affiant believes The Simple Mortgage Investment Corporation is an affiliate of the group. The PPSA searches, the affidavit says, also show subordinate security interests registered for TR2 Investment Corp. and TR3 Investment Corp., which the affiant believes are investment funds operated by or associated with Whitehall Apartments Corp. Both the Whitehall and the mortgage corporation's security interests "have been subordinated to the HMT debt and security," the affidavit says, and on the registration dates and "the various subordination agreements executed by the other secured creditors," the affiant believes HMT holds the first-ranking mortgages on the properties (HMT affidavit, paras. 22–24). The receiver's notice, which calls HMT "Harbour," records that position and its own reservation side by side: "Harbour has advised the Receiver that it understands its mortgage security to rank first on each Real Property, including by virtue of postponements granted by other registered mortgagees in Harbour's favour. The Receiver has not independently determined the validity, enforceability or priority of any security or postponement, all of which remain subject to review" (Notice and Statement of the Receiver, para. 4).