The owners of a Burnaby strata unit could face arrest if they aren’t out of their apartment by June 3, according to a B.C. Supreme Court ruling this month.
The decision is the latest in a legal battle between Barry Linden and Ronald Thibodeau and the Parkcrest Apartments strata at 5932 Patterson Ave.
The strata applied to the court to force the married couple to sell their unit and leave because they had breached a B.C. Supreme Court decision last year essentially ordering them to behave.
Among other prohibitions, the April 8, 2016 decision ordered them not to yell, scream, slam or pound on strata doors, listen in on other strata lots, leave dog feces on common strata property and utter any abusive, obscene or threatening comments to strata members.
Justice William Ehrcke also ordered the couple to pay $3,400 in unpaid fines that had piled up over the course of more than four years.
Sworn affidavits from 11 of Linden and Thibodeau’s neighbours at the 95-unit building were presented to the court.
One couple said Linden and Thibodeau made them feel like “prisoners in their own home.”
Another neighbour, who said she’d been called “slut,” “whore” and other obscenities by Linden and Thibodeau, said their abusive behaviour had forced her onto anti-anxiety medication.
Seven of their neighbours complained of the couple yelling, screaming, singing, playing loud music, slamming doors and allowing their dog to bark incessantly.
At one point, Linden was captured on the strata’s security camera smearing dog feces on a carpet outside one of the building’s entrances.
Thibodeau told the court the residents who swore affidavits were not credible and that he and Linden were “well-liked” by their other neighbours, but Ehrcke noted no affidavits were presented to support Thibodeau’s claim.
From bad to worse
Since Ehrcke’s ruling a year ago, things have only gotten worse at Parkcrest, according to this month’s decision by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray.
“Complaints of their neighbours and the strata have had no effect,” she said. “Rather, they seem to spur (Linden and Thibodeau) on. … The respondents have breached virtually every term of the order. They continue to disturb, harass, threaten, and insult their neighbours and their guests with impunity. They seem to take pleasure from causing others to feel uncomfortable and unsafe in their homes.”
Murray pointed to numerous complaints over the past year. Besides continued noise, neighbours complained of Linden and Thibodeau lurking and eavesdropping on them from bushes and behind closed doors and spraying one resident and her guests with water on her patio.
A video presented as evidence showed an altercation after a strata council meeting that escalated from Linden and Thibodeau yelling at two residents to Linden assaulting them.
One couple moved out of the complex in January to get away from Linden and Thibodeau, according to the ruling.
Linden and Thibodeau, meanwhile, maintained the allegations against them are the result of a vendetta by people in the strata.
Murray was unconvinced.
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the respondents are in contempt of the April 2016 order,” she said. “I am also satisfied that no measure remains other than eviction that will suffice to protect the other residents in the strata and give them the quiet enjoyment of their property that they deserve.”
Murray ordered Linden and Thibodeau to list their unit within seven days and give up vacant possession by June 3.
Failure to live up to either of the orders against them could see Linden and Thibodeau arrested for contempt, according to the ruling.
