Strata-property law: 2017 in review

2017 has been a busy year in strata-property law, with interesting cases on termination, rental-restrictions, and unit entitlement, and progress on reform efforts across Canada. Here are some of the significant developments in 2017, as noted in the BCLI blog. January: The BC Court of Appeal overturned a supreme-court decision on whether errors in a strata plan needed to be considered in ruling on a parking dispute. The first strata termination approved without a unanimous Read more…

Strata Property Law Project: 2017 year-end update

2017 was a year of milestones for BCLI’s Strata Property Law Project—Phase Two. The project committee wrapped up its work on complex stratas. There were noteworthy developments on the new strata-termination legislation, which was inspired by the committee’s 2015 Report on Terminating a Strata (PDF). And the project saw significant progress made on the committee’s review of selected governance, common-property, and land-title issues, topics that will loom ever larger for the project in 2018. Completion Read more…

The Financing Litigation Series: Legal Expense Insurance

This blog post is the fifth in a six-part series showcasing each of the six financing models explored in the Study Paper on Financing Litigation (PDF), published on October 4, 2017, and recent developments in British Columbia. To read other posts in the series click here. Legal expense insurance offers coverage for legal services. Depending on the policy, individuals pay an annual insurance premium to the insurance provider in exchange for legal information, advice and representation. Read more…

BC Human Rights Tribunal allows complaint based on language of strata meetings to proceed

Wellington Court is a strata property consisting of 54 residential strata lots located in Richmond. A majority of “the owners at Wellington Court are of Asian descent,” and “a significant number of the owners are Mandarin speakers as their first language with some having a limited facility in English.” Since 2015, Wellington Court’s general meetings and strata-council meetings have been held in Mandarin. The complainant “filed a complaint on his own behalf and on behalf of the owners of [other Read more…

BC Supreme Court grants leave to appeal CRT decision in dispute over upkeep of duplex strata property

In McKnight v Bourque, 2017 BCSC 2280, the Supreme Court of British Columbia considered an application for leave to appeal a decision of the Civil Resolution Tribunal. The application proceeded under section 56.5 of the Civil Resolution Tribunal Act. Leave was granted on five of the eleven grounds sought. The underlying dispute “relates to a duplex strata property; a one-storey oceanfront building in Sooke, B.C.” As the CRT noted in its decision “the strata has operated informally without complying Read more…