18/09/2017 – Jurisdiction British Columbia
Part 60 published on 01/12/2017
Court orders owner to remove heat pump, but reduces fines imposed by corporation.
The owner had installed a heat pump without consent of the strata council. The strata corporation claimed that this contravened the corporation’s by-laws.
The Court held that “although a heat pump can be a part of an air conditioning system, it is different from an ‘air conditioning unit’ in that an air conditioning unit provides only cooling of the air”. As such, the heat pump did not contravene the corporation’s by-laws prohibiting air conditioning units.
However, the Court held that installation of the heat pump involved an unauthorized modification to the common property. The Court said:
In this case, it was necessary to connect the air conditioning unit, which was located within the petitioner’s unit and not visible to the outside, to the heat pump located on the lower patio. In order to do so, the petitioner installed two pipes within the exterior wall of his unit, a portion of which is common property. Installation required penetration of the exterior wall, albeit, that portion which is limited common property in the inside of the wall at the lower patio. Penetrating a wall to allow for the installation of piping is an alteration to common property, albeit not significant.
This was a separate contravention of the by-laws and, as a result, the Court ordered that the heat pump and piping be removed, and that the common property be restored. However, the Court also reduced the fines that had been imposed by the strata corporation.