You may recall the case of a 41 year old stockbroker who was forced to sell her unit as a result of her violent, threatening and harmful conduct against property and against other owners.
In another similar case, which was decided on April 13, 2011, the Court concluded that one of the owners had engaged in aggressive behaviour towards other unit owners, their guests, and management. The owner had previously been convicted and had served jail time for various criminal offences relating to his conduct towards other owners and visitors.
At the hearing, the owner did not dispute any of the allegations against him but instead responded that the board had been misappropriating or misspending funds and had treated him unfairly. He had commenced his own action against the Corporation in Small Claims Court.
The judge concluded that the owner was in breach of the Condominium Act and the Corporation’s rules prohibiting nuisance. However, given this owner’s previous jail time had not proven effective in curbing the owner’s conduct, the judge felt that an order forcing compliance would not be useful and relied instead on s.135 of the Condominium Act. This section grants the Court wide discretionary powers to “rectify the matter” when the conduct of an owner threatens to be oppressive or unfairly prejudicial to the other owners.
The judge acknowledged that forcing an owner to sell was a drastic remedy that should only be granted when no other remedy appeared likely to succeed. In this case, the judge was of the view that the owner in question was unlikely to stop his abusive conduct voluntarily and concluded that forcing the sale was the only remedy likely to provide the other owners with basic security and quiet enjoyment of their property.
The judge ordered that the owner vacate and sell his unit within 90 days, failing which the Corporation was entitled to list and sell the unit. The order also provided that the Corporation was entitled to recover from the proceeds of sale all of its costs in returning the unit to a state fit for occupancy. Finally, the Court also ordered that the owner pay the Corporation’s legal costs and that all of these costs be deemed to be common expenses collectible from the sale of the unit.
