A BC woman is doing some heavy lifting in her efforts to get her strata to address her complaints about her neighbouring gym. She says it has led to a series of vibrations and thumping noises that she can hear and feel from her bedroom.
According to a public document posted in the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, the issue is that the woman owns the unit next to the condo building’s gym. She’s complained a number of times that the sounds of people dropping weights are disruptive to her right to enjoy her home. She also has issues with the garbage compactor, which is below her unit, as she says it’s noisy.
“Mrs. Madani wants the strata to remove the free weights. Alternatively, she wants the strata to improve signage, enforce its bylaws and rules, and hire an acoustic engineer to assess the noise and make recommendations,” the tribunal decision reads in part.
She says the gym equipment includes dumbbells up to 50 lbs, barbells, and plates up to 45 lbs that can be loaded onto the barbells. She first filed her noise complaint against them in March 2023.
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While it’s often common for complaints like these to seek financial compensation, the results she’s pushing for involve removing the free weights completely from the gym.
The strata did an informal noise test and found that the sound was muffled if gym users dropped the weights on the padded mats. However, the tribunal member was confused because it was already against the rules to drop equipment on the ground.
“I find that ordering the strata to enforce its noise bylaws and gym rules would serve no purpose because the strata is already required to do those things. This includes bylaw 1(3)(1) prohibiting unreasonable noise. It also includes rule 3.10, which says ‘Do not drop weights.’ This means that any exercise where a weight is intentionally dropped to the ground at the end of a repetition or set contravenes the rules,” Tribunal Member Micah Carmody said in their decision.
While Carmody didn’t order that the free weights or garbage compactor be removed, the complainant did win a small victory. She was reimbursed for half of her CRT fees, about $190, and two more noise tests have been ordered to be required in the next two weeks before she can take her complaints back up again.