BC Supreme Court holds that a positive obligation in an easement is not binding on subsequent landowners

In The Owners, Strata Plan NWS 3457 v The Owners, Strata Plan LMS 1425, 2017 BCSC 1346, the Supreme Court of British Columbia considered “whether an obligation to pay certain expenses contained in an agreement registered against title to parcels of land can bind subsequent owners of the land.” Much like the court’s decision earlier this year in the Crystal Square case, the court in this case found little scope to hold that “such a positive obligation Read more…

Making Wills Half a World Over: Part One of the Wills Series

This series examines and compares recommendations made in several BCLI reports and those made by the Law Commission of England and Wales. To read the other posts in the series click here. On July 13 2017, the Law Commission of England and Wales published its new Consultation Paper as part of its Wills Project. The publication, entitled “Making a Will,” sets out options for reform of the law of wills, and asks for public feedback on Read more…

CRT roundup—significant unfairness, use of limited common property, chargebacks, and jurisdiction and procedure

This post is part of a monthly series summarizing the Civil Resolution Tribunal’s strata-property decisions. There have been six new decisions since the last post. Significant unfairness and use of limited common property—application to install hot tub on roof deck Doig v The Owners, Strata Plan VR 1712, 2017 BCCRT 36, involved a dispute over “whether a strata corporation’s council acted fairly in regard to the owners’ requests concerning the use and renovation of a strata lot’s Read more…

Ontario court orders internet service provider to disclose identity of author of allegedly defamatory emails

Carleton Condominium Corporation No 282 v Yahoo! Inc, 2017 ONSC 4385, is an interesting case that displays the intersection of condominium law, civil procedure, and the tort of defamation. The case was an application launched as a prelude to a defamation proceeding. The plaintiff was a condominium corporation, which claimed that its board of directors was defamed by email messages “sent to owners and occupants of the Condominium Corporation.” The author of the emails used the Read more…

A closer look at the Report on Complex Stratas—should the Strata Property Act continue to require a strata corporation to hold an annual general meeting after the deposit of each phase in a phased strata plan other than the first phase?

This post is the third in a three-part series highlighting key recommendations in the Report on Complex Stratas (PDF). For other entries in the series, click here. The committee’s review of phased strata plans was diverse and wide-ranging. A lot of its time was spent considering how to apply the act’s governance standards to phases deposited after the new phase. A representative example is the requirement to hold an annual general meeting in set time Read more…