Legal Cases | Levitt Di Lella Duggan & Chaplick LLP

Decisions from the Courts: The Impact on Your Condominium Corporation

An owner of a unit in a commercial condominium corporation failed to pay his common expenses for over six years. Despite this, no certificate of lien was ever registered. In an effort to collect what had then become a very substantial amount of arrears, the condominium corporation brought an application for a compliance order under s. 134(5) of the Condominium Act asking that the owner pay all arrears of common expenses. The court declared that the owner was in breach of its obligation to contribute to the common expenses as set out in s. 84 of the Act. The court then ordered that the owner comply with its duties and obligations under the Act. In doing so, the owner was obligated to pay almost $25,000 in damages as a result of the noncompliance, the corporation’s costs of almost $14,000 incurred in obtaining the order. In addition, the total of the damages and costs awarded were ordered to be added to the common expenses for the unit.

The Impact on Your Condominium Corporation – Part I

This was an appeal by an insurance company of an order obtained by the condominium corporation, which order had entitled the corporation to a substantial payout under its insurance policy. The corporation had a fire protection system, which was used to direct water through the sprinkler and fire hose systems in the building, and which had been improperly designed and/or installed. As a result of this improper design and/or installation, one of the standpipes that made up part of the system failed, causing a flood that resulted in an estimated $20 million in damage to the building. The corporation subsequently replaced the fire protection system at a cost of approximately $600,000.

Decisions that Impact Your Condominium Corporation – Part I

This was a motion by the plaintiff Royal Bank of Canada for summary judgment against the defendants, Mr. and Ms. Khan. The Khans owned a condominium unit, and had ceased paying their common expenses due to dissatisfaction with repair work carried out by the corporation. As a result, the condominium corporation had registered a lien on the title to the unit. Since a condominium lien, when registered, has priority over most other encumbrances on a unit (including mortgages), a mortgagee will often pay the arrears in order to discharge the lien. In this case, the bank, which held a mortgage on the unit, chose to do so.

Decisions That Impact Your Condominium Corporation – Part II

This was the latest, to the date of the decision, in a long series of reported decisions relating to this condominium corporation. The corporation, which was comprised of 897 residential units, had been governed by a court-appointed administrator since 2006 . In a referendum ordered by the court in December 2011 , an “overwhelming majority” of the unit owners voted that the court-appointed administration should end and the governance of the corporation should transition to an elected board of directors.

The Impact on Your Condominium Corporation – Part II

This was an appeal by a couple who owned a condominium unit from an order obtained on an application by the condominium corporation, as previously reported in this space in the winter 2009 edition of CM Magazine. The corporation’s declaration contained a provision that each unit was only to be used as a “one family residence”, and defined “family” as “a social unit consisting of parents and their children, whether natural or adopted, and includ[ing] other relatives if living with the primary group”. The respondent unit owners had been operating their unit as a rooming house, which, the condominium corporation alleged, was a breach of the declaration. The judge hearing the application agreed, holding that the respondents had breached the declaration, and ordering them to comply with same.

The Impact on Your Condominium Corporation – Part III

This was a complaint brought before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal by Mr. Harton, who was the owner of a strata unit in the respondent strata corporation, based on what he alleged to be discrimination against him by the respondent as a result of his physical disability. Mr. Harton’s unit in Vancouver faced west and overlooked the water. As a result of this, Mr. Harton alleged that his unit was subjected to high levels of direct and reflected radiation. He further alleged that he was at an unusual risk of developing skin cancer, and that he had been previously treated to have skin cancer removed. According to Mr. Harton, his doctor had advised him to minimize his exposure to the sun.