KITCHENER — A rental tribunal has thrown cold water on landlord Sheldon Cook's demand that tenants pay $400 to clean up chalk drawings on a sidewalk.

"The tenants would only have to wait for the first light rain for their daughter's 'undue damage' to be erased forever," Landlord and Tenant Board adjudicator Kevin Lundy wrote in a ruling received by the tenants on Friday.

Cook, a suspended police officer, had applied to have tenants at 95 Benton St. in Kitchener evicted. He argued their child's chalk drawings damaged the townhouse property and demanded $400.

"I cannot possibly find that chalk drawings on pavement could amount to 'undue damage,' let alone damage that would cost $400 to 'repair,' " Lundy wrote.

He concluded that Cook uses fines and the threat of eviction to try to end conduct that "displeases him." Lundy made the same comment in last week's ruling involving Cook and tenants at 93½ Benton St.

He also wrote that the sidewalk may not even be part of the townhouse complex.

Lundy rejected the eviction application.

Christopher Boyce, who lives at 95 Benton St. with his fiancée, Jessica Lock-Szymanek, said Cook's attempt to get $400 for removal of chalk drawings was "the most pathetic thing I've ever heard of."

Cook did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Last Thursday, Boyce and Lock-Szymanek, won another Landlord and Tenant Board dispute with Cook. He was ordered to give them a $1,502 rent credit to compensate for a months-long sewage leak caused by a plumbing problem. He also ruled the tenants paid him rent for June, despite Cook's contention that they didn't.

Also last week, the board issued a split decision in a dispute with tenants at 93½ Benton St. It ruled Cook was not to blame for tenants Keith Boniface and Catherine McDonald going more than five weeks without hot water. But he concluded the tenants did pay him rent for June.

Cook is suspended without pay by Peel Regional Police. In 2010, he was sentenced to more than five years in prison on seven convictions, including stealing what he thought was cocaine worth as much as $540,000.

Cook, who lives in Cambridge, is on bail awaiting his appeal of the convictions and sentence. The Ontario Court of Appeal will hear the matter on Oct. 27.