A Richmond, B.C., man who was fined more than $11,000 for installing a heat pump in his strata lot will have to pay significantly less, thanks to a tribunal decision.
The Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) has ordered Sina Shakibaei’s strata to reduce the fines levied against him from $11,600 to $2,600.
It’s a partial win for the man wrapped up in a conflict that, according to the tribunal decision, involved an invalid agreement, an improper meeting and bylaw violations.
More households in Canada have been looking to heat pumps as a greener way to save money while heating and cooling their homes.
The pumps — which use electricity and don’t burn fossil fuels — are seen as more efficient than traditional methods of indoor climate control because they transfer warm and cold air rather than generate it.
$200 fines add up
Shakibaei lives in a strata building that has 130 residential lots, according to the tribunal decision issued this week. In 2021, he installed a heat pump on the patio outside his ground-level strata lot.
In strata housing, people own their individual strata lots and, together with other residents, own common property and assets as a strata corporation. They’re governed by bylaws and make decisions about the strata through a council. Shakibaei was vice-president of the seven-member council.
About 254,000 households have heat pumps in B.C., the provincial government said in a news release last month.
Shakibaei was the only owner in his strata who had a heat pump or air conditioner, according to the decision.
Peter Messenger with A1 Air Conditioning and Heating and University of Calgary’s Sara Hastings-Simon explain how heat pumps work.
In September 2022, the strata corporation complained to Shakibaei that his heat pump damaged the building envelope, according to the tribunal.
The corporation said the heat pump contravened a bylaw that requires owners to get approval from the strata before altering common property and another bylaw banning air conditioning devices.
Shakibaei was asked to remove the pump within a week or face a $200 fine and more fines every seven days if the contravention continued.
Records show the strata fined him in November 2022 and continued penalizing him financially every week for over a year until December 2023, according to the tribunal.
“At that point, the fines totalled $11,600. It is not clear whether the strata has imposed any fines since then,” tribunal member Micah Carmody said.
Owner claims he had permission
Shakibaei claimed he had the strata’s permission to install the heat pump based on an agreement signed by the former strata council president and the former strata manager.
The former president and manager say Shakibaei did present his heat pump request at a meeting and that he abstained from voting as vice president.
However, four council members say they were not at that meeting, never received correspondence about the heat pump or voted on it, the tribunal said.
A strata bylaw states a council of seven members must have at least four members to conduct council business, Carmody said.
“So the strata council could not vote on Mr. Shakibaei’s alteration application,” Carmody wrote, adding that Shakibaei “knew or should have known” the rules as a council member and vice president.
$9K reduction in fines
While the tribunal found the approval decision invalid, it ruled that Shakibaei only has to pay $2,600 of the $11,600 in fines levied against him.
Carmody referenced a 2017 tribunal decision between a strata and owner that found a $200 weekly fine was fair but only until the CRT proceeding begins. At that point, according to the earlier decision, the strata has to stop imposing fines.
Since Shakibaei started his CRT dispute in February 2023, the tribunal has slashed his fines by $9,000.
Shakibaei also sought $15,000 in damages from the strata and an order preventing the corporation from removing his heat pump, but the tribunal dismissed both claims.
CBC News contacted Shakibaei and the strata corporation through their lawyers but did not receive responses by deadline.