A disgruntled homeowner took his strata to a BC court because it wouldn’t allow him to keep the paint of the exterior trim of his home and the garage door a specific colour.
Douglas George Scott had a hearing against his strata with the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal.
According to Scott, when he purchased his home in 2021, the exterior trim and garage doors were white.
Scott says that the strata requested that he repaint the trim and garage doors a different colour to comply with a statutory building scheme. He also told the tribunal that other houses in the complex have white trim and white garage doors and that he was being mistreated.
The strata’s defence is that it has the authority to make the demands it has.
Scott sought $1,700 in dispute-related expenses, while the BC strata asked the tribunal to dismiss the claim.
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One of the issues in the case was the strata couldn’t prove that Scott had anything to do with the fact that the exterior trim and garage door were white. The tribunal suggested the previous owner was more likely to have had something to do with it.
“The strata admitted the white trim and garage doors may have been part of the previous owner’s application,” the tribunal said.
Another issue was whether or not the strata had the authority even to ask Scott to change the colours.
The strata said that the design plans of the property suggested muted colours; however, nowhere does it say that white wasn’t allowed. Scott argued that it was unfair for the strata to require him to change the colour of his house trim and garage doors from white to another.
“The guidelines in place at the time of Mr. Scott’s purchase of SL104 are not objective or clearly defined and generally require chosen colours to blend in with the natural environment,” the tribunal decision states.
In defence of the fact that some units on the property were white, the strata told the BC court it was because the building scheme wasn’t filed against some units and was unenforceable.
“The strata also says three houses with ‘non-muted white trim’ were approved erroneously, so it issued unconditional approval letters for those three strata lots,” the tribunal said.
“I find the strata’s decision not to allow the white trim and garage doors to remain was significantly unfair.”
While Scott didn’t win all of his damages, the strata was ordered to approve the white trim and garage door colour of his house, and it had to pay Scott $225 in tribunal fees.
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