BC homeowner takes legal fight to strata over $300 move-in fee

A BC strata was ordered to reverse the move-in fee it charged to the owner of a home in the strata property.

Ciyan Huang claimed that the strata inappropriately charged her a $300 move-in fee, and asked the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal to order the strata to remove it from her account.

The strata disagreed with her claim and said it acted according to bylaws.

Here’s what happened in the publicly posted decision.

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Huang told the tribunal that she lived with her son for several years in her unit before renting it out. She said that the unit in question was empty on September 1, 2021, when her son dropped off items for storage.

On September 7, Huang claimed that the strata building caretaker “inappropriately entered” the unit without notice, and she was later notified by the strata that she had been hit with the $300 fee.

She claims she shouldn’t have been charged the fee because the unit was unoccupied and unfurnished in September 2021 when her son moved a few items into the lot for storage. She adds that dropping a few household items off shouldn’t incur a move-in fee, as they didn’t need to have the elevator blocked off or equipped with protective coverings.

Huang also told the tribunal that the fee was invalid because she was exempt under the bylaw as someone who purchased directly from the developer. She also said she would’ve booked the elevator and paid the fee if she needed to move a truckload of items.

The tribunal reviewed the bylaws, which were amended in October 2016. Those bylaws included Huang’s assertion that a $300 fee doesn’t have to be paid by someone who purchased from the developer.

However, that isn’t why the tribunal determined that the strata had to repay her. In its decision, the tribunal outlined that what happened did not constitute a “move.”

“There were no more than a dozen items. By the strata’s own submission, moving the items took 30 minutes. Given the small volume of items and the lack of furniture, I find that the move-in fee does not apply. I order the strata to reverse the $300 charge for the move-in fee,” the tribunal said.

The BC strata was ordered to reimburse Huang $300 for the move-in fee and $225 for tribunal fees.

Read the full decision here.