Vancouver man pays $2,500 for a parking stall he can barely fit into

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Editor’s Note: Wesgroup Properties refutes the claims made by the condo owner in this article and has provided Daily Hive with additional information. Read the full story here.

A Vancouver resident who recently moved into a condo with an upgraded parking stall was appalled when he realized his car barely fit into the space.

In 2017, Sunny Lee signed an agreement to purchase a pre-developed condo in Vancouver’s River District. The development in question is Avalon3 by Wesgroup Properties.

The unit was finally completed about a week ago, and he accepted the option to upgrade his parking stall for $2,500 which included EV charging capabilities. After taking possession of his new home, he had concerns about the size of the spot and a concrete post.

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In an email to Daily Hive Urbanized, Lee claims that a representative of the new home possession team agreed that the stall was substantially smaller than other stalls in the lot. Lee says he was told that the developer would be contacted to seek rearrangement.

“I responded to that email by attaching the photos of the stall with my car on it. I can barely squeeze my car in without hitting my side mirror, but the tires are inevitably over the boundary line.”

Lee believes his stall is narrower than the minimum required width, but Daily Hive has received documents from the architect involved that states the stall “has been designed to meet the size requirements.”

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He eventually did get a response from the developer, but they said that all the proper rules were followed.

The exact response he got from Wesgroup was, “all measurements have been approved by the city, and the parkade plan passed through several stages of review by our consultants, as well as city staff in order to obtain the necessary permits to construct the parkade and buildings.”

Daily Hive Urbanized obtained a statement from the City which said, “all off-street parking spaces for small cars shall be a minimum of 4.6 m in length and 2.3 m in width and shall have a minimum vertical clearance of 2.0 m, except that where one side of any space abuts any portion of a fence or structure the minimum width shall be 2.6 m or where both sides abut any portion of a fence or structure the minimum width shall be 2.7 m. Columns may encroach up to 0.15m on one side of a stall.”

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Lee says he feels like a victim.

“I don’t know whether my story is news-worthy, but I don’t think the developer’s behaviour should be encouraged. As we all know real estate industry is probably the most lucrative business in town, the developer squeezes out spaces to make more money out of their parking stall sales.”

In a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized, Wesgroup confirms that the parking stall was “designed to comply with the requirements of the Vancouver Parking By Law” and that it was verified by City staff.

“Wesgroup staff have also verified that the parking stall meets (and exceeds) the dimensional requirements for small parking stalls per Section II of the City of Vancouver’s Parking and Loading Design Supplement.”

Wesgroup also states they’ve been in touch with Lee with these details.

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