2 Repair And Maintenance Of Property By Owner

CASE LAW

Duty to Repair and Maintain

Section 2 of the Schedule of Standard Bylaws of the Strata Property Act and s. 115(c) of the Condominium Act state that the owner of a strata lot must repair and maintain the lot and limited common property. The following case, decided under the Condominium Act, affirms this duty.

Under a strata plan filed in the land title office, a large balcony adjacent to the petitioners’ strata lot was designated as limited common property. When the petitioners viewed the property before their purchase, it would have been clear to them that not all of the space had been developed as a balcony and that they could reach some of the balcony space only by stepping over a partition and a railing. The petitioners’ subsequent application to the strata council and the strata corporation to remove part of the existing railing, to install an identical railing around the undeveloped space, and to finish the balcony was denied. A strata corporation’s bylaws, rules, and regulations for the control and management of common property must not conflict with an owner’s obligations under s. 115(c) of the Condominium Act to repair and maintain areas allocated to the owner’s exclusive use and must not purport to expand the exceptions set out in s. 116(f). Once common property has been designated as limited common property, the strata corporation no longer retains all of the powers it previously had to make bylaws with respect to that property. In granting the petition, the court found that the petitioners’ request was a request to fully use the limited common property assigned to them and not a request to extend the limited common property. In addition, the petitioners’ obligations to “repair and maintain” the limited common property were broad enough to encompass the alterations requested by them (Mott v. Owners, Leasehold Strata Plan LMS 2185 (U.B.C. Properties Inc.), 1998 CanLII 3972 (BC SC) (Chambers)).