Financing Litigation Legal Research Project Update

“Access to justice” continues to be a hot-button issue across Canada. It is a high-priority topic not only for the Canadian Bar Association, provincial Law Societies, and Law Foundations – but for everyday people who find themselves faced with a legal system that often appears unapproachable. With funding from the Law Foundation of British Columbia, BCLI has started a project devoted to examining the different ways individuals can hire lawyers. As research by University of Read more…

Strata corporation’s handling of smoking complaint found not to be significantly unfair

The BC Supreme Court has issued its third judgment in one month on a strata-property smoking dispute. After considering a blanket no-smoking bylaw and an order that a strata-lot owner cease and desist from smoking in his unit, in Chorney v The Owners, Strata Plan VIS770, 2016 BCSC 148, the court considered a strata corporation’s application of the procedure for handling alleged bylaw infractions set out in section 135 of the Strata Property Act to a complaint Read more…

Major changes coming to Ontario condominium law

2015 was something of a high-water mark for reforms to strata-property law. Both British Columbia and New South Wales passed major amendments to their governing legislation. Ontario, too, passed a landmark amending act late last year. On 3 December 2015, the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 received royal assent. The act had its genesis in a three-stage research and consultation project sponsored by Ontario’s Ministry of Government and Consumer Services and carried out by Canada’s Public Policy Forum. Its Read more…

Strata corporation obtains order that owner cease and desist from smoking in strata lot

The British Columbia Supreme Court has had occasion to rule on another case involving smoking in a strata lot. In The Owners, Strata Plan NW 1815 v Aradi, 2016 BCSC 105 the court granted a strata corporation an order under section 173 of the Strata Property Act that an owner refrain from contravening the strata corporation’s no-smoking bylaw—by ceasing to smoke within his own strata lot. Facts and issues The case involved a petitioner strata corporation and Read more…

BC Supreme Court upholds enhanced charges for defined support services in strata property catering to seniors

In its recently released decision in The Owners, Strata Plan VIS4686 v Craig, 2016 BCSC 90, the BC Supreme Court examines the intersection of strata-property rules on common expenses and for-profit supportive housing for older adults. The court granted the petitioner strata corporation a declaration under section 171 (1) (a) of the Strata Property Act, affirming the validity of its bylaws relating to a detailed set of support services, even though there were some concerns about Read more…