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A B.C. condo owner whose strata went out of its way to block them from doing renovations to their townhouse has won a legal fight.

According to Feb. 14 B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, strata LMS 2242 refused to give permission for Kit Ling Pratima Milaire and Paul Milaire to do renovations to their Richmond townhouse and then attempted to change the strata's bylaws to block them entirely.

The decision said the Milaires wanted to replace part of a load-bearing wall between their entry closet and laundry closet to create a small laundry room.

The couple had a structural engineer draw the plans up and the city reviewed them and had no issues.

However, the couple did need the strata's permission.

While the strata's bylaw states it must not "unreasonably withhold" approval, it still refused to give the Milaire's permission.

The strata manager sent the Milaires an email saying it wouldn't allow renovations "whatever the reasons are."

The couple then took the strata to the Civil Resolution Tribunal arguing the strata were being unreasonable.

The strata argued it wouldn't allow anyone to do structural renovations, so therefore it wasn't singling the couple out.

The Tribunal didn't buy it.

"The difficulty with the strata’s position is that its own bylaw... specifically allows structural alterations within a strata lot," the Tribunal ruled.

The decision said after the couple launched the Civil Resolution Tribunal dispute the strata held a meeting and attempted to change the bylaws to prohibit all structural changes within strata lots.

The move failed to get enough votes and didn't impress the Tribunal.

"The strata’s practice of withholding approval of structural alterations is at odds with the ownership’s democratically expressed preferences," the Tribunal ruled.

Several months after the Milaires plan had been rejected they submitted another scaled-down version that was non-structural.

However, the strata still refused to accept the proposal.

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The strata then told the couple it would "consider" the new scaled-down renovation if the Milaires dropped their legal action.

The strata goes on to argue it doesn't want to allow structural alterations in case multiple future alterations compromise the strata building.

The Tribunal had none of it.

"The strata does not say how properly engineered and -constructed structural alterations could compromise the buildings," the Tribunal ruled. "I find the engineering reports directly and clearly confirm that the proposed alterations were safe, would not affect any other strata lot, and would not affect the building’s structural integrity or seismic resistance."

The strata then come up with another excuse and said the couple hadn't signed the indemnity agreement.

The Milaires said they'd happily sign it anytime and the Tribunal dismissed the strata argument.

"Overall, I find the evidence before me reveals no basis on which the strata could have reasonably withheld its approval of the proposed alterations," the Tribunal ruled. "I find the strata unreasonably withheld its alteration approval."

The Milaires argued for compensation to cover inflation.

They submitted a quote valid until the end of April 2022 for $10,000 and then another estimate valid to June 2022 for $11,200.

They argued the strata should pay the $1,200 difference.

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However, the Tribunal dismissed it saying both quotes are out of date and there is no evidence to show what the renovation would cost when the actual construction starts.

Ultimately, the Tribunal ordered the strata to approve the renovations and pay $1,185 to cover the cost of engineering reports submitted as evidence.

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