Enforcing Bylaws Against Nuisance Owners

In a previous post I discussed how a strata corporation successfully evicted an owner, which was the second time that a strata corporation was successful in that request.

However, the case of The Owners, Strata Plan LMS XXX v DB, 2017 BCCRT 117, is an example of a strata corporation that was unsuccessful in its request to evict an owner. The main reason for being unsuccessful is the the Civil Resolution Tribunal has no jurisdiction or authority to evict an owner.

Further, the courts have been clear that in order for an owner to be evicted, the strata corporation must prove that an injection preventing the owner's breach of the bylaws has been unsuccessful.

Although the owner in LMS XXX was found to be disruptive and had clearly breached the bylaws for months (yelling, stomping, fighting, smoking, requiring the police to be called numerous times, etc.), even if the strata corporation had applied to BC Supreme Court, they likely wouldn't have been successful in evicting the owner. Eviction is an extreme remedy and not appropriate in the first instance.

In the end, the CRT ordered the owner to pay the strata corporation $2,000 in fines for breaches of the bylaws, ordered the owner to stop breaching the bylaws, and ordered her to not let in her 'associate' that was the cause of some of the breaches and the cause of her behaviour that led to some of the breaches.

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TAEYA FITZPATRICK Taeya Fitzpatrick has specialized in strata law for most of her practice, has won cases for her clients in the BC Supreme Court, the BC Court of Appeal, and assisted with a client succeeding in defending a Civil Resolution Tribunal claim. Taeya offers full services to a strata corporation or a strata owner from redrafting the strata’s bylaws, collection of outstanding strata fees or other charges, issues with bylaw enforcement, to amending the strata plan. For more information on the services provided, you can reach Taeya by email, phone: 250-763-4323, or at her Web Page.