A Summerland man came just shy of being ordered to sell his unit following several years of conflict with the building's strata. 

The recently posted Supreme Court judgment ordered August and Gloria Flaman to pay the La Vista Ridge for fines, legal fees for the strata and chargeback fees, for installing multiple pieces of infrastructure into his unit.

In addition, Justice Hardwick issued an order that the Flamans be barred from communicating with the strata in any way outside of posting mail. 

"Certain individuals are not entirely well suited for living in a stratified situation wherein there are restrictions placed upon them which would likely not otherwise be imposed if they lived in a residence wherein they hold freehold title," reads Hardwick's judgement. "This is, in my conclusion, one of those situations."

Hardwick stated that the conflict between the Flamans and the strata corporation had clearly "runneth over" based on the seven binders worth of evidence that was submitted to the court.

According to the judgment, the Flamans live in one of three four-unit buildings that are part of the La Vista Ridge strata property.

The exterior walls, part of the building envelope, are considered common property shared between the units that in 2019 and 2020, the Flamans had contractors do several unapproved alterations. 

One of the alterations involved the installation of the ventilation system to deal with radon gas build-up, a known issue the strata was working to deal with, something that the Flamans deemed was not being dealt with swiftly enough. 

"Mr. Flaman鈥檚 position is that the Flamans were entitled to jump the queue on his own initiative and then seek reimbursement in due course because of his belief there had excessive delays and intentional foot-dragging (the latter term is my terminology, not Mr. Flaman鈥檚 but I think they are apt in the circumstances)," reads Hardwick's judgment.

The Flamans also installed a new furnace and air conditioner, which required alterations to the building envelope.

In 2020, the Flamans installed a fresh air vent system that had received express disapproval from the strata, by perforating the building exterior at 9:30 p.m. at night. 

An architectural firm did a review in 2021 and found all of the perforations done for the Flaman's projects required remediation.

On top of the various projects that were done by the Flamans without approval beforehand, August Flaman's behaviour towards other people was included in the strata's lawsuit. 

There were two incidents where Flaman allegedly intimidated a person with his vehicle and then used an open house at a neighbouring unit to snoop through the property, only to get kicked out by the realtor. 

In addition, two different contractors quit, as did one strata manager, all three of which were attributed to the Flamans. 

Hardwick stopped just shy of forcing a sale of the Flamans strata unit, noting that the strata itself had decided to request for regulation of the Flamans' behaviour as a first step.