B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal has refused to get involved in a dispute between strata owners and their council about pool, gym and hot tub sign-up sheets.
Lorisa Watt and Naomi Daigle are co-owners of different units in the Vancouver Island strata. They claim the strata improperly approved new rules for the use of the pool, gym and hot tub, said a Jan. 30 decision from tribunal vice-chair J. Garth Cambrey.
Cambrey’s decision said owners ratified the rules by majority vote at a general meeting held in March 2023.
Watt and Daigle, however, said 3/4 vote approval is necessary under the Strata Property Act (SPA).
What they particularly objected to was using sign-in sheets and restricting the number of residents and guests that can use the facilities at the same time, and for how long.
Those, they said, were not in the preceding version of the rules. They asserted the use of sign-in sheets is contrary to B.C.’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
“They request orders that the strata stop restricting access to the recreation facilities and that the sign-in sheets be ‘abolished,’” Cambrey said.
For its part, the strata said the SPA doesn’t apply to the new rules because they do not affect how the recreation facilities are used.
The strata argued the new rules govern how residents access the facilities, limit the number of users, place a maximum time on use, and require users to sign up in advance.
What the rules do, the strata argued, is allow fair access to all residents and are necessary for capacity reasons.
“It disagrees the sign-in sheets used are contrary to the PIPA,” Cambrey said. “The strata asks that the applicants’ claims be dismissed.”
Owners surveyed
The strata had surveyed owners as to their wishes about the recreation facilities after COVID-19 restrictions were eased. Those had included sign-in sheets.
Cambrey said a majority of owners were in favour of continuing with sign-in sheets to pre-book one-hour time slots, as was done during COVID-19 restrictions.
“The strata council voted on rules at a May 20, 2022 meeting,” Cambrey said. “It also posted the rules and distributed them to all owners on that date.”
And, he said, in December 2022 the strata council amended the rules to restrict owners from booking back-to-back time slots and extending their use into the next time slot if another owner had already booked it.
“It also restricted owners from pre-booking more than three timeslots per week for the gym,” he said.
What the issue turned on was whether or not there was a significant change in use. Cambrey agreed there was a change in use and had to decide if it was significant.
“The evidence is that the owners overwhelmingly supported the rule changes at issue here,” he said in finding the changes were not contrary to the SPA.
He noted Watt and Daigle had the opportunity to participate in the survey.
“There is no evidence the applicants have been treated any differently than any other owner, so I find the strata did not act in a significantly unfair way as defined by the courts. Therefore, their claim for significant unfairness must also fail.”
Cambrey refused to resolve the privacy issue and dismissed the rest of the claims.
