A BC Tribunal has found a Kelowna strata acted significantly unfairly after a “mix-up” over a storage locker dragged on for years and cost $9,000 in legal fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mix-up began when Kenneth and Mary-Ann Reddick bought their Valley Road condo in November 2021 and found that the storage locker they’d been assigned was occupied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a July 14 BC Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, the couple asked their strata to clear the locker out, and they said they would do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the months the Reddicks made numerous inquiries about when the locker would be ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly a year later, they hired a lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“(The) lawyer emailed the strata manager that resolution of the locker issue was urgent as their tenants… required storage,” the decision reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strata then found numerous storage locker issues and that its records indicated the couple’s locker had been designated to another strata unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strata then hired its own lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple were offered the use of another locker, and they accepted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the strata’s annual general meeting, a vote was held and passed, and the couple were given a different locker, almost 18 months after they’d bought the unit. The paperwork was then filed at the Land Title Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple then asked the strata to reimburse their legal fees of $3,200. The strata refused and offered $1,200.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unsatisfied, the Reddicks took the strata to the Civil Resolution Tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strata then counterclaimed, saying it was the Reddicks who owed it money for land surveyors and legal fees. It wanted $5,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The evidence confirms the strata took almost two years to address the locker issue. I agree with the (couple) that the strata did not take meaningful steps to address the matter until they retained a lawyer, which was about 10 months from when they first raised the issue. I find the strata\u2019s lack of action was unreasonable and could be considered significantly unfair,” the Tribunal ruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the decision, the Tribunal went through the Strata Property Act and looked at how the lockers, which are classified as Limited Common Property, had been dealt with legally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It found that the Strata failed to follow the rules when re-designating the storage lockers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I find the strata\u2019s actions in this regard were clearly significantly unfair,” the Tribunal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tribunal found that the Strata had incorrectly registered the lockers with the Land Title Office and made numerous mistakes in dealing with the legalities of the lockers’ ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Based on this, I find the strata has not properly designated a different storage locker… for the exclusive use of the (Reddicks),” the Tribunal said. “In other words, the (couples) storage locker issue has still not been resolved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, while the couple wanted $3,400 for legal fees and $1,900 for time spent dealing with the issue, the Tribunal wasn’t swayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I agree with the (couple) that the strata took no meaningful steps to resolve the locker issue for about 10 months,” the Tribunal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Tribunal said the couple’s lawyer had made numerous mistakes, and the issue of the lockers’ legal ownership still hadn’t been resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of that, the Tribunal awarded 50% of the legal fees, ordering the strata to pay the couple $1,465.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tribunal dismissed the couple’s claim for the hours spent working on the dispute and the Strata for legal fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, the Tribunal ordered the strata to pay the couple $1,730, including interest and fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The issue of the legal ownership of the lockers is yet to be resolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A BC Tribunal has found a Kelowna strata acted significantly unfairly after a “mix-up” over a storage locker dragged on for years and cost $9,000 in legal fees. The mix-up began when Kenneth and Mary-Ann Reddick bought their Valley Road condo in November 2021 and found that the storage locker they’d been assigned was occupied. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":7555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"guid":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":null,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[541,543],"tags":[],"region":[322,323,324,325],"class_list":["post-7554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-hd-mediaitemid94051-2474.jpeg","post_modified":"2025-07-19T17:00:00","post_modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T00:00:00","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7554"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=7554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}