BC strata owner loses fight over $45,000 wastewater support sink, BC Civil Resolution Tribunal finds strata not negligent.
A Vancouver strata owner has lost her bid for $45,146 in compensation after wastewater backed up through a sink into her suite at the University of British Columbia in 2023.
Micah Carmody, a member of the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, said in an Oct. 31 decision that wastewater was backing up from Tingting Chen's kitchen sink while the strata's contractor “water flushed” a sewer line on the common property.
Chen claimed the strata were responsible for the resulting water damage and sought compensation to cover cleanup, repairs and temporary housing costs.
However, the strata moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the backup was caused by an unexpected clog in the sewer line in the parking garage below Chen's unit.
On March 9, 2023, Chen came home to find a significant amount of sewage overflowing from her kitchen sink.
According to an email from the strata's building manager dated March 15, 2023, the strata advised that the hydroflushing company recovered a large metal pipe snake from the plumbing line in the parkade – likely from someone who was attempting to clean their own pipe and in the process the snake has lost.
Both the strata and Chen agreed that a backup occurred after the sewer line became clogged through hydroflushing.
trata has taken appropriate measures
The strata hired an emergency restoration contractor to mitigate the damage, which Carmody felt was an appropriate measure.
The tribunal member said there was no evidence that hydroflushing the pipes earlier would have prevented the backflow, and he disagreed with Chen that a backflow test before hydroflushing would have prevented the incident.
He said the shifts couldn't have expected the blockage.
“Overall, I find that Strata has not been negligent in maintaining the common property lines,” Carmody said.
“For these reasons, I dismiss Ms. Chen’s lawsuit.”
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