Burnaby man sues strata to make building fine drivers in visitor stalls

A Burnaby resident got so fed up with his building manager’s perceived lack of action enforcing visitor parking rules that he sued his strata over it.

The Novo II building near Simon Fraser University has more than a dozen visitor parking stalls available, and residents have visitor parking passes that their guests or contractors can display while visiting the building.

But when resident Christian Leblanc joined the strata in 2021, he noticed some vehicles parked in the 18 visitor stalls weren’t displaying a pass, and wanted the building manager to be more proactive in issuing bylaw infraction notices.

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Leblanc was trying to find ways to boost revenue given that the building was operating with a deficit. His argument was that the building was losing money by having, as he viewed it, residents abuse the parking stalls.

But the Civil Resolution Tribunal, which made a decision on the case in documents posted online, didn’t find evidence that the building was actually losing money through its current approach — since the only fee associated with visitor parking was a $50 charge for a lost permit.

The building could potentially fine residents improperly using the parking stalls, but that would first require finding out which visitor car is associated with which resident — a time-consuming and difficult task.

The strata argued it uses discretion to enforce bylaws, and doesn’t need to enforce them if the breach is trifling, trivial, or unimportant. What’s more, the building manager tries to issue warnings before issuing infraction notices or calling a tow truck. Plus, it argued there always seems to be adequate visitor parking.

The tribunal sided with the strata and dismissed Leblanc’s dispute.