A Kelowna strata has been ordered to repay $1,700 worth of fines to a homeowner after his tenants hosted a charity car wash on the strata’s property. According to a civil settlement court ruling, Lutz-Martin Zeitler owns one of 48 townhouses in a recent development along Kelowna’s Academy Way. He had rented the unit to his son and two roommates, all of whom were students at nearby UBC Okanagan. Beginning around noon on September 16, 2021, the tenants held a car wash to raise money for intramural basketball jerseys, prompting complaints from neighbors. When the mattress manager contacted Zeitler to ask him to contact his son to stop the car wash around 2:30 p.m., Zeitler replied that “the boys are picking up a few bucks” and suggested that the event was disproportionate. The car wash continued for several more hours. Citing complaints of using strata water, loud music, public urination, drinking on public property and blocking traffic, the strata fined Zeitler $1,700, spread over 8 bylaw violations of $200 each and 2 rule violations with 50 dollars each. Zeitler paid the fines under protest and filed a claim with the CRT. He argued that the strata failed to give the tenants a reasonable opportunity to respond to the complaint. The court agreed and noted that case law states that a mattress cannot directly fine a landlord for violating the tenant statute. A strata must fine a tenant, but can then collect the fine from the landlord. The mattresses tried to argue that they couldn’t notify the tenants because they didn’t have contact information, but the court rejected that, noting that the mattresses found their contact information five days after the car wash. Because the fines violated the Strata Property Act, the court found them invalid and ordered their return. Mattresses was also ordered to pay $231 in legal fees to Zeitler.
