B.C. homeowner wins thousands in nightmarish noise dispute | Daily Hive

'Stomped around': B.C. homeowner wins thousands in nightmarish noise dispute

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What sounds like a nightmarish living scenario due to excessive noise led one B.C. homeowner to pursue legal action in a case against the residents who lived in the unit above hers.

TM owns and lives in unit 207 of a strata building. The respondents in the case are LB and EB, who live in unit 307, which is directly above TM.

TM said LB and EB have been making unreasonable noise and causing a nuisance since June 2022. Because of the disturbances, TM claimed that she suffered mental distress, loss of income, depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

The respondents denied making noise or otherwise harming the homeowner in unit 307. However, the evidence would prove otherwise, and neither LB nor EB provided any evidence of their own.

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In this B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal case, TM sought damages of $5,000 for lost income.

In late June 2022, TM says that EB regularly began visiting unit 307 and was “essentially” living in it with LB and LB’s son. Later, EB’s three children also moved into unit 307.

TM says they engaged in loud and aggressive behaviour, which included swearing, physical and domestic violence, and threats of self-harm, which could all be heard from unit 207. TM also claimed they partied late into the night, played loud music, “stomped around the unit, slammed doors, and moved furniture at irregular hours.”

She even claimed they sometimes threw garbage off their balcony that would land on hers.

TM complained, sometimes emailing the strata daily between July 2022 and August 2023.

LB and EB received warnings or bylaw fines on six separate occasions. For a brief time in September 2022, the disturbances lessened in occurrence, but they resumed in frequency in November 2022.

TM said LB yelled at her and intimated her after the fines were issued.

In an email that TM sent to the strata, she claimed that LB was yelling at her from a window when he said, “We can make as much noise as we want till 11 p.m. you [expletive]!”

TM logged and detailed all the instances of stomping, yelling, swearing, and partying, including past 11 p.m., on “many days” between November 2022 and January 2023. According to TM, it sometimes lasted for hours several times a day.

“It also shows one of unit 307’s occupants referred to ‘the [expletive] downstairs.”

TM kept recording all the noise and disturbances and included a timeline of events, which she submitted to the tribunal. The tribunal reflected on some videos that TM submitted of loud banging, which the tribunal said would be “intolerable.”

LB claimed the noise was normal when living with children, but the tribunal disagreed.

When deciding on a remedy, the tribunal noted that TM had dealt with ongoing noise for around 23 months and found that she was entitled to $3,000 in damages for nuisance. Including tribunal fees, LB and EB were ordered to pay TM $3,175.