A B.C. Supreme Court judge has concluded that some people may simply not be suited to living in a condo complex after ruling in favour of a beleaguered strata council dealing with difficult owners.
Justice Briana Hardwick ordered the couple to pay fines – the decision doesn’t give an amount – imposed after the pair made modifications to their unit without strata approval. Although the strata council didn’t request a forced sale, the judge did say the courts could consider a forced sale if the couple refused to abide by her orders.
“Certain individuals are not entirely well suited for living in a stratified situation wherein there are restrictions placed upon them which would likely not otherwise be imposed if they lived in a residence wherein they hold freehold title,” Justice Hardwick wrote in the opening paragraph of her judgment.
The ruling is a window into the kinds of conflicts that will land increasingly before the courts as more people opt to live in denser, stratified housing where there are collective rules and restrictions and a resident council to enforce them.
The court heard Jerome and Gloria Flaman made several alterations to their residence in a 12-unit condo complex in the small Okanagan town of Summerland.
Over a period of years, the Flamans installed exterior vents for a furnace and fresh-air system and put holes in the unit’s exterior siding, which is considered common property. Among the work was measures to mitigate radon gas, which the judgment notes the strata corporation had plans to address. But the Flamans believed that was taking too long, so proceeded on their own.
In the early going, the justice notes, the strata council was forgiving in allowing some alterations.
“Much like a parent who waffles in their otherwise appropriate disciplinary action of a child, prior waffling does not give carte blanche for further transgressions,” the judge wrote. “If there is a 10:00 curfew, failing to this once without consequences on one occasion does not mean that the curfew is now midnight.”
Things got ugly and confrontations between the Flamans and other owners and workers on the strata became heated. In her ruling, Justice Hardwick prohibited Mr. Flaman from communicating with anyone in the strata corporation or anyone doing work for them when requested, from making obscene or threatening gestures to anyone on the strata property, and from “driving aggressively towards pedestrians or other vehicles within the bounds of the strata plan.”
With 1.5 million of B.C.’s five million residents living in strata housing, there are inevitably some people who don’t do well, says Tony Gioventu, executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of B.C.
“When you live in a strata, your home is not your castle and that’s not a message that some people like. You don’t get to put holes in walls or paint your place purple.”
Mr. Gioventu said serious conflicts are relatively uncommon, given that there are 36,000 strata corporations in the province, all operating with volunteer resident boards.
The province’s eight-year-old civil resolutions tribunal, created to help deal with conflicts so people don’t have to go to court, makes about 300 decisions a year, he said.
A few of those end up going on to the Supreme Court if one side or the other decides to challenge the tribunal ruling or if a party decides to proceed straight to court.
There have been more than a dozen cases in the first half of 2024 involving strata councils.
In May, a Supreme Court judge granted a court order to a group of owners in Victoria’s Laurel Point Condominiums to require everyone to participate in a $9-million upgrade of old aluminum and vinyl windows and sliding doors in the almost 50-year-old building. Only 62 per cent of the strata members had voted in favour of the special assessment and repair, instead of the required 75 per cent, but Justice Anthony Saunders agreed the owners’ request met the test for the kind of repair necessary to prevent a building from deteriorating.
Other cases involved one owner’s demand that the council turn over legal opinions on whether there had been a human-rights violation in the case of the eviction of a couple with a baby, and a dispute over a deck that was added to a property.
Mr. Gioventu said that the best thing strata councils can do to avoid conflict is communicate extensively and directly and to document everything.
In bad situations, said Mr. Gioventu, “Get help. Hire some professionals to get you through this.”
Special to The Globe and Mail