A Burnaby owner who changed her apartment's layout without strata authorization has been ordered to pay $12,400 in bylaw fines and reverse the renovations.
In January 2021, owner Shiyun Liang got conditional approval to change the flooring and cabinets in her apartment at City Club on the Park on Beresford Street, according to a ruling by B.C.'s Civil Resolution Tribunal last week. .
When the strata inspected the work, however, it determined more had been done than it had approved, the ruling said.
The strata said Liang had changed the location of the master bedroom door, knocked out two walls in the original ensuite, swapped out the bathtub with a shower, installed a cabinet where the master bedroom door used to be, put in a new door from the master bedroom into the ensuite, relocated the electrical panel and reconfigured the storeroom so the washer and dryer were accessible through the storeroom instead of the hallway.
The strata said Liang should be ordered to pay $34,800 in bylaw fines, restore her apartment to its original layout, properly apply to the strata for a renovation approval and pay all the strata's costs and expert fees related to the dispute.
But Liang denied making any unauthorized renovations or breaching the bylaws.
She said the fines were unfair and the strata didn't properly comply with the Strata Property Act before imposing them.
To whatever degree her renovations were unauthorized, Liang said the strata had unreasonably withheld its approval.
She said the strata should be ordered to cancel the bylaw fines, approve the alterations to her apartment, sign the necessary paperwork, and pay $20,000 as damages for significant unfairness.
In the end, both sides won a partial victory.
Liang was ordered to pay $13,731.57 in bylaw fines and pre-judgement interest and given 90 days to restore her apartment to its original layout.
She was also ordered to provide the strata access for an inspection, for which she will be required to pay, and told to comply with the strata's bylaws for future renovation requests.
"The strata did nothing to suggest that it would ever approve the unapproved alterations," tribunal member David Jiang said in his ruling. "I do not find it would be significantly unfair for the strata to require Ms. Liang to remove the unapproved alterations."
But the strata was ordered to reverse the rest of the bylaw fines and $7,273.26 in chargebacks for legal fees on her account.
Jiang said stratas have a duty to enforce bylaws but enforcement must be "tempered with prudence and good faith."
In Liang's case, he said it was "significantly unfair" to impose multiple weekly $200 fines for what was essentially the same ongoing breach.
The Civil Resolution Tribunal is an online, quasi-judicial tribunal that hears strata property disputes and small claims cases.
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