BC strata: Couple ordered to remove forbidden flooring

A Burnaby pair has four months to pull up some not too long ago laid laminate flooring in their townhouse right after dropping a Civil Resolution Tribunal fight with their strata council.

Andrea and Elijah Beretta replaced the flooring in their 1975 Fraser Hills townhouse on Aries Location in November 2020, in accordance to a CRT ruling previous week.

Soon, on the other hand, there was a “rumour circulating” the Berettas had set up laminate flooring the place laminate flooring was forbidden, namely the residing room, hallway and dining space, in accordance to the ruling.

The few was confronted by the strata council president in an electronic mail, and the situation ultimately landed in the entrance of the tribunal.

The strata used to the CRT for an order forcing the Berettas to get rid of the offending laminate considering the fact that it violates strata bylaws forbidden the set up of “hard surface flooring” any place other than kitchens, bathrooms and entrance halls.

The Berettas admitted they experienced mounted the laminate wherever laminate should really not be but argued their unit had experienced laminate in those areas right before the bylaw was handed.

Even more, they argued they had educated the strata in advance of time that they would be replacing the flooring “like-for-like,” with laminate and carpeting wherever they experienced existed prior to, and the strata experienced lifted no objections.

But tribunal vice chair Kate Campbell sided with the strata.

Whilst the strata’s bylaws allow proprietors to preserve all tricky surface area flooring set up just before 2008, Campbell ruled there is very little in the bylaws that permits “like-for-like” alternative of aged tricky flooring with new hard flooring.

She also dominated the Berettas had not been unique ample about their programs to place laminate the place it was not allowed, and it was hence unreasonable for the Berettas to have expected the strata to kibosh their strategies just before the flooring was mounted.

“Since the Berettas’ correspondence with the strata did not explicitly say where by they prepared to put in laminate flooring, I find their expectation was unreasonable,” Campbell said in the Feb. 17 ruling.

Campbell gave the Berettas four months to substitute any laminate that wasn’t in the kitchen area, bathroom or entrance hall, and requested the couple to pay the strata $225 in tribunal expenses. 

The CRT is an on-line, quasi-judicial tribunal that hears strata residence disputes and smaller claims circumstances.

Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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