B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal has ordered the condo owners in an upscale Vancouver building to pay $75,873 for a fire caused by discarded smoking material.
The blaze erupted on the balcony on Feb. 10, 2021, in a unit owned by Ho Yeung Yuen, state tribunal documents. Yuen's tenants weren’t home when the fire department extinguished the flames.
“Based on the interview and scene evidence, the fire department found the fire was accidental and caused by “careless discarded" smokers' material, tribunal member Nav Shukla said in her June 28 decision.
The strata said that by causing common property damage, the tenants breached the strata’s bylaws, and sought costs from the condo owner.
The strata sought judgment against the owner for $72,646.27: $65,289 for the window repairs, $4,084.50 for balcony repairs, and $3,272.77 for the cost of a forensic engineering report the strata obtained to determine the damage’s cause.
The owner said the strata’s investigation into the fire’s cause was inconclusive; in response, they sought an order that the strata remove the $72,646.27 chargeback from their strata lot account.
The strata hired a forensic fire investigator whose report concluded, “the fire’s origin was likely within a garbage bag left by the tenants on the balcony, possibly due to improperly disposed electronic cigarettes.”
One tenant told an investigator that neither she nor her roommate were smokers but that she did use disposable electronic cigarettes and that she typically throws them out in the garbage and uses them daily or every other day.
“I find the owner must pay the strata the $65,289 it seeks for the window repairs and $4,084.50 for the balcony repairs, which I find are the costs the strata incurred in remedying the tenants’ bylaw breach,” Shukla said, noting other costs the owner must pay.
As such, Shukla dismissed the owner’s claim that the strata should remove the damage chargeback from their account.
