A Richmond strata has petitioned B.C. Supreme Court to review a dispute over a heat pump replacement in which the Civil Resolution Tribunal ordered the strata to pay an owner $5,000.
According to the Oct. 7 decision from tribunal member Amanda Binnie, Iuliana Stanescu claimed the strata did not properly maintain a central unit for the strata’s heating system. Stanescu alleged that required her to replace her unit’s heat pump after only four years.
She claimed $5,000 for the purchase of a mobile air conditioning unit and replacing the heat pump.
The strata, however, said it’s not responsible for the replacement or AC unit, as both are part of Stanescu’s strata lot.
The strata claimed it properly maintained the building’s geothermal common property system.
Binnie said the parties agreed that the strata lots are heated by a geothermal system made up of a central unit on the roof of the building, which provides fluid at a certain temperature to individual heat pump units within each strata lot.
Binnie found the strata refused to acknowledge the heat pumps were common property and told Stanescu in May 2019 that it was her responsibility to maintain hers.
The tribunal found Stanescu acted reasonably by unilaterally repairing the heat pump because the strata told her it was her responsibility.
On Dec. 6, the strata filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court with the tribunal and Stanescu as respondents. It asked the tribunal decision be set aside and a new hearing be held.
The petition claimed Stanescu had not shown the heat pump was worn nor had she properly proven negligence before the tribunal.
The petition asked the court to overturn the decision on the grounds of unreasonableness.
The petition claimed the decision was made on grounds on which neither party had made pleadings and, as such, was unfair.
“A patently unreasonable decision is one whose reasoning is so obviously defective that it cannot be justified,” the petition said.
“The absence of evidence to support the premise that the heat pump required replacement or that there otherwise existed circumstances such as an emergency that justified the heat pump's replacement makes the subsequent finding, that Ms. Stanescu reasonably replaced the heat pump, patently unreasonable,” the petition said.
