A Kelowna woman has won a dispute with her building’s mattress that revolved around her new puppy’s alleged barking. In a Civil Resolution Tribunal decision handed down on Friday, CRT vice-president Kate Campbell sided with Elizabeth Woods in her dispute with her mattresses, agreeing that the mattresses did not provide Woods with enough information to defend herself against the claim that Willow’s puppy “barks constantly during all hours of the day.” The issue began in May 2021, when Woods first adopted two-month-old Willow. She gave her layers the required pet registration form, but at some point, a neighbor started complaining about the puppy’s barking. On September 29, Woods received a letter regarding the complaint, which outlined the regulations that Woods had allegedly violated. He said: “It has been reported that your dog is constantly barking at all hours of the day.” Woods, who says Willow isn’t barking all the time, requested a hearing on the matter, which was held on Oct. 25. But on November 1, she received another letter saying her responses to the allegations at the hearing were “unsatisfactory” and the mattress fined her $200. The letter also said that if Woods did not get Willow to stop barking within seven days, they would have her remove the dog from the building. But layers say barking hasn’t been a problem since the fine was imposed. In the CRT, Woods argued that the layers did not provide her with sufficient detail about the allegations before the fine was imposed. “Ms. Woods says she was told by the board president that the complainant had recorded times and dates of barking, but these were not provided until the layers presented their evidence in this dispute,” Campbell wrote in her CRT ruling. . “Mrs. Woods says she was unable to defend herself against the allegations at the council hearing because the council refused to provide her with the dates and times of the alleged barking.” Ultimately, Campbell agreed with Woods’ argument and ruled in her favor. “I believe it was unreasonable and unfair to withhold this information and not provide details of dates and times until after the fine was imposed,” Campbell said. “The layers say they wanted to avoid a potential collision between neighbors, but the layers could have deleted the identifying information from the log.” Campbell ordered the strata to reverse the $200 fine and refund Woods an additional $225 in CRT fees.
