A B.C. homeowner was implicated in a tribunal decision against her strata regarding the violation of smoking-related bylaws.
According to the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal hearing, the applicant in the case, the strata, claimed that the homeowner, SC, repeatedly breached smoking bylaws in her limited common property patio and backyard attached to her unit.
The strata asked the tribunal for an order that SC comply with the bylaw, and asked for $17,400 in bylaw fines, and $6,850.72 for the strata’s costs to remedy the contraventions.
In defence, SC claimed that the strata “unfairly harassed” her for smoking, and that she was allowed to smoke in her backyard because her activities were permitted under a previous bylaw.
Between March 17, 2024 and July 30, 2024, the strata received 87 complaints about SC’s smoking, which a neighbour filed. The complaints involved the neighbour observing SC smoking outside, smelling smoke, or observing her smoking in the doorway of her unit. The neighbour said that the smoke would travel outside.
SC didn’t deny the complaints and added that she had not smoked on the strata property since August 2024.
SC further claimed that she was exempt from the new bylaws, which were passed in 2021.
“She relies on conversations that she says she had with the previous strata council president when the strata passed the revised bylaw in 2021. She says she was assured at that time that she would be able to smoke in her backyard,” the tribunal decision states.
The tribunal found that there was no exemption in the bylaws that corresponded to her smoking, and the tribunal turned its attention to damages.
Between March 19, 2024, and April 16, 2024, the B.C. strata sent SC nine letters that described the date and time of each of SC’s smoking events that contravened bylaws. In each letter, SC was warned that each contravention could cost her $200.
While the strata did not comply with the Strata Property Act to levy a fine in each case, the tribunal determined that the strata did comply with the Act for 36 of the violations, totalling $7,200 in fines.
Ultimately, SC was ordered to stop smoking on limited common property and ordered to pay the strata $10,678.30, which amounted to $7,200 in fines and $2,740.29 in enforcement expenses.