06/03/2019 – Jurisdiction British Columbia
Part 66 published on 01/06/2019
Strata corporation had taken reasonable steps in fulfillment of its repair and maintenance obligations
The petitioning owners said that the strata corporation had completely failed to address severe problems with moisture and mould in attic areas, which affected the petitioners’ strata lot and other strata lots.
After reviewing all of the history, the Court held that the actions of the strata corporation had been reasonable. The Court said:
Between October 2013 and July 2017, the Strata Corporation spent substantial sums on attic inspections, consultations, repairs, remediation and mould testing. The work recommended by RDH and carried out by Common Ground, based on the monitoring done by RDH beginning in 2017 and continuing into 2018, appears to have been effective. Based on the results of the testing done by Sterling in July and August 2018, the Strata Council made the decision that there was no need to conduct any further remediation.
The petitioners say that the results of testing done by Sterling in July and August 2018 support their position that the problems – in particular, the problems with mould contamination in relation to their Unit – have not been sufficiently addressed. However, in my view, the petitioners have failed to show that the Strata Council’s decision not to conduct any further remediation was unreasonable, and they have failed to show that the Strata Corporation have acted unreasonably in all the circumstances. The fact that the petitioners do not agree with the Strata Council’s approach, or its conclusion that, for the time being, nothing further needs to be done in terms of remediation, does not mean that the Strata Corporation has failed in its duty to repair and maintain the common property. To paraphrase the observation of Josephson J. in Weir v. Owners, Strata Plan NW 17, 2010 BCSC 784 (CanLII), at para. 31, even if it may prove to be the case that the petitioners’ approach is the wiser and preferable course of action, that does not render the approach of the Strata Council unreasonable.