Part 23 published on 01/09/08
Court agrees to reallocate water and sewer expenses
This is a mixed-use condominium, consisting of 16 commercial strata lots and 7 seven residential strata lots. There was a dispute between the commercial and residential owners respecting allocation of common expenses.
The Court agreed that water and sewer expenses should be reallocated to redress significant unfairness within the meaning of Section 164 of the Strata Property Act. The Court held that the commercial owners had acted in a significantly unfair manner in voting down a resolution which would have achieved a fair reallocation of those expenses. The Court declined to reallocate other common expenses. Although other common expenses had been proven to be unfairly allocated, the Court said that “there is no evidence before this Court which would allow the Court to conclude that any disproportionate use of these expenses results in significant unfairness”. In the absence of “significant unfairness”, the Court would not order any reallocation of those other expenses.