after nine years of 'steady' neglect, vancouver tenants win legal battle with landlord at west end building
the problems at the cardero street regency park building helped inspire a motion unanimously approved this month at vancouver city council, aiming to beef up the city's building maintenance bylaw.
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the regency park residences in vancouver, seen here on dec. 27, 2024.
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a group of west end tenants has scored a victory in an eight-year legal battle against their landlord, larco investments, a real estate company owned by one of canada’s wealthiest families.
the 19-storey, 169 unit apartment building at 1225 cardero st. has been the subject of several complaints over the years, as have other buildings owned by larco. in a decision delivered this week, the b.c. residential tenancy branch arbitrator found the landlord’s neglect in dealing with the cardero building’s “deplorable” garbage area was neither temporary nor intermittent, but “steady for the last nine years,” causing an “ongoing and unreasonable disturbance” for the tenants.
the rtb arbitrator found the landlords had breached their obligation to maintain the property, awarding five tenants monetary compensation totalling $38,525. the tenants who still live in the building were also awarded a continuing $90-per-month reduction in their rent starting next month, until the landlord relocates the garbage area to the underground garage and reinstates the garbage chutes that were closed.
larco is owned by the lalji family, multibillionaires who own hundreds of properties across canada, including the hotel vancouver, west vancouver’s park royal shopping centre, and other large hotels and apartment buildings.
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at the rtb hearing, larco was represented by lawyers from vancouver law firm clark wilson. larco and their lawyers didn’t reply to requests for comment for this or earlier stories.
the complaint was filed by tenants’ advocate aïssa aggoune. he estimated larco may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees fighting this complaint.
aggoune called this week’s rtb decision a “david versus goliath” victory.
“this case proves that tenants can take on powerful landlords and win,” aggoune said. “it’s a legal and moral victory with implications that ripple far beyond this one building.”
aggoune originally filed the complaint in 2018, and it initially failed at the rtb. aggoune appealed to the court, where a judge found the original decision was “patently unreasonable” and ordered a new hearing.
aggoune is still awaiting an rtb decision on a different complaint about the air quality in the building.
the problems at the cardero building also helped inspire a motion introduced at city council earlier this month by green coun. pete fry, who visited the tower last year, while a postmedia news reporter also attended, to inspect its condition and hear the tenants’ complaints.
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fry’s motion directed staff to report back on amendments to vancouver’s building maintenance bylaw “to include references and remedies for instances of mould, indoor air quality and water damage,” problems that aren’t addressed in the current bylaw and which fry had observed at 1225 cardero st.
the motion was seconded by abc coun. lisa dominato and approved unanimously.
fry said friday that much of the inspiration for his motion came from his visits to 1225 cardero st., “which in my opinion and experience contributed to what’s referred to as ‘sick building syndrome.’ ”
“sick building syndrome” refers to symptoms that people experience in buildings with poor air quality, including headaches, fatigue, nausea and sinus congestion.
fry said: “the tenants’ recent victory at rtb doesn’t explicitly address the sick building condition, but future decisions certainly could, once an updated standards of maintenance bylaw is enacted.”
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