B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal has ordered two noisy neighbours to pay the person who lived downstairs $3,000 for a year of screaming, stomping parties and loud music.
Tribunal member Mark Henderson said in a March 25 decision that Theresa McKraig lived below Leonard Bourne and Elma Banks.
McKraig claimed Banks and Bourne had been making unreasonable noise and causing a nuisance since about June 2022.
McKraig said she suffered depression, anxiety and insomnia from the disturbances. She also said she has suffered mental distress and loss of income because of Banks and Bourne’s ongoing conduct, according to the decision.
McKraig sought $5,000 in compensation for lost income.
Bourne denied harming McKraig or making noise that caused a nuisance. Banks did not file a dispute response and was found technically in default.
McKraig said that, in late June 2022, Banks began regularly visiting and essentially living with Bourne and his son. Banks’ three children also lived in the unit at some point, according to the decision.
McKraig claimed her neighbours engaged in loud behaviour, including screaming, swearing, physical and domestic violence, and threats of self-harm, that she could hear in her unit.
McKraig also said the occupants partied late into the night, played loud music, stomped around the unit, slammed doors and moved furniture at irregular hours.
And, McKraig said, the residents sometimes threw garbage from their balcony onto her balcony below.
She complained to the strata about the noise and other behaviour, emailing the strata on a regular and sometimes daily basis between July 2022 and August 2023 to report the ongoing noise.
McKraig said Bourne yelled at her and intimidated her in response to the fines that the strata issued.
In a Jan. 15, 2023, email to the strata, McKraig said a day earlier Bourne was yelling at her from a window saying, “We can make as much noise as we want till 11pm you [expletive]!”
“I find the strata’s repeated warnings and bylaw fines for noise issued against unit 307 support Ms. McKraig’s allegation that the noise was both problematic and ongoing,” tribunal member Henderson said in his decision.
McKraig submitted two videos of banging noise.
“I find the videos show intermittent but abrupt and loud banging,” Henderson said. “I find the volume of the banging provided in the videos would be intolerable, especially if, as Ms. McKraig says, it occurred on a regular basis during the day and night.”
In response to the allegations, Bourne said he is a well-liked member of the strata. He also acknowledged the presence of his son and Banks’ three children.
“Bourne says the noise arises from normal activities of living with children,” Henderson said. “Bourne did not specifically dispute that they had yelled at Ms. McKraig about the bylaw fines.”
Henderson said based on the evidence, “the regular screaming, fighting, swearing, banging and stomping . . . would have been intolerable to an ordinary person when viewed objectively.”
And, while Henderson said stomping and banging may be normal noises associated with life with children in a strata unit, the complaints of arguing, swearing and loud music late at night which are inconsistent with the normal noise associated with living with children.
As such, Henderson awarded McKraig $3,000.
