The strata at a Burnaby apartment highrise has been ordered to reverse more than $30,000 in noise bylaw fines it handed out for piano practice sounds coming from one of its units.
Liyan Hu owns a condo at Triomphe at 1888 Gilmore Ave. in Brentwood, according to a ruling by the province’s Civil Resolution Tribunal Monday.
She started getting letters from the strata in September 2021 about complaints from her downstairs neighbour, who told the strata he was being subjected to piano noise from the unit above him "every day for one hour."
The strata told Hu the noise violated the building's bylaws and said she could be fined.
But Hu said there was no bylaw against piano playing and her son was entitled to practice the instrument.
She told the strata she had done "everything possible, within reason," in terms of soundproofing measures.
Meanwhile, she said her disgruntled downstairs neighbour was intentionally causing a disturbance with what she described as a "prolonged, apparently mechanized/automated jackhammering during the day, into the night and, on occasion, well into the early hours of the morning."
When that stopped after four months, she said he began "poking" at the ceiling.
In an attempt to resolve the dispute, the strata eventually asked Hu to limit the playing time to one hour per day, three days a week, but Hu refused, saying she would restrict the playing to one hour a day, between 4 and 7 p.m.
In the end, the strata ended up sending Hu 177 bylaw infraction letters between September 2021 and May 2024, and fining her $34,500.
She complained to the Civil Resolution Tribunal, saying the strata had failed to properly investigate the noise complaints before imposing the penalties.
She asked the tribunal for an order forcing the strata to reverse the fines.
She also claimed $5,000 in damages for "extreme stress and mental anguish."
The strata called for Hu's claims to be dismissed, saying it had properly followed the Strata Property Act when it imposed the fines.
Tribunal member Garth Cambrey disagreed.
He said the strata had acted "significantly unfairly" by fining Hu without properly investigating the noise complaints and by trying to limit the time when her piano could be used.
Cambrey noted there was no bylaw against playing musical instruments in the building; an attempt to pass one in July 2023 had failed.
The only bylaw that applied was one prohibiting "unreasonable noise," but Cambrey said the strata had not proven the piano noise had, in fact, been unreasonable.
He pointed out the strata had relied solely on incident reports from the building's concierge and didn't make any objective assessment of the noise through third-party testing or by having strata council members visit the affected unit.
"I find the lack of an improper investigation of the piano noise complaints against her resulted in the strata treating Ms. Hu in a significantly unfair manner," Cambrey said.
He ordered the strata to immediately reverse $30,700 of the fines and pay half of Hu's tribunal fees.
He dismissed Hu's claims for stress and mental anguish, saying she hadn't presented any medical evidence as proof.
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