16/05/2023 – Jurisdiction British Colombia
Part 84 published on 01/12/2023
Court amends schedule of Unit Entitlements pursuant to Section 164 of Strata Property Act
The petitioner was an owner in the strata corporation. He asked the Court to amend the unit entitlements for the strata lots under Section 164 of the Strata Property Act, based upon significant unfairness of the registered unit entitlements. The Court granted the petition.
Throughout most of the history of the strata corporation, unit entitlements had been treated as if they were based upon the actual square footages of the strata lots, even though this was not in keeping with the registered unit entitlements. [The registered unit entitlements were based upon a very rough approximation of the square footages.] Although there had been historical attempts to amend the unit entitlements (so that they would be based upon actual square footages), those attempts had not been legally completed or finalized. But again: The strata corporation had generally treated the unit entitlements as based upon actual square footages.
In 2020, one of the owners objected to paying contributions based upon the actual square footages.
The strata corporation subsequently sent a schedule with the 2021 AGM Notice referring to the registered unit entitlements. The Court determined that this was significantly unfair, and ordered that the unit entitlements be amended. The Court said:
I grant the declaration sought that the proposed adoption by VR 42’s Strata Council of the schedule delivered to VR 42 Owners with the Notice of Annual General Meeting constitutes a significantly unfair action or threatened action by, or decision of the Strata Council, contrary to s. 164(1) of the (Strata Property Act).
I order that the Schedules of UE for VR 42 be amended so that the UE of each (Strata Lot) shall be the total area of both floors of that (Strata Lot) as set out in each of the Strata Plans, excluding the area of each (Strata Lot’s) patio, converted into square metres, and rounded to the nearest whole number.