VANCOUVER — A woman’s home may be her castle, but British Columbia’s Appeal Court says she still must play nice with the neighbours.
The province’s highest court has upheld a rare judgment that ordered a Vancouver-area woman to sell her condo after years of complaints and unpaid strata fines.
The B.C. Supreme Court issued a ruling earlier this year that ordered Rose Jordison to sell her suite in a Surrey strata development following an avalanche of complaints about the behaviour of the woman’s son, Jordy.
Jordison appealed, arguing the court did not have the power to interfere with her property rights.
But the Appeal Court issued a unanimous decision on Tuesday that said provincial legislation permits a court-ordered sale in such extreme cases.
“The competing private property interest . . . must, in my opinion, yield to the rights and duties of the collective as embodied in the (strata) bylaws and enforceable by court order,” Justice Ian Donald wrote for the three-judge panel.
“The old adage ’a man’s home is his castle’ is subordinated by the exigencies of modern living in a condominium setting.”