A renter from B.C.’s Lower Mainland who said she endured months of late-night noise from her upstairs neighbour—despite lodging numerous complaints over the racket—has been awarded $5,000 in damages. Brianna Polden eventually moved out to escape the noise, but took her former building’s strata to the province’s Civil Resolution Tribunal alleging a frustrating lack of action was taken in response to her complaints. She provided a log of 110 disturbances she recorded between June 2023 and April 2024—while she was both working and taking university courses—that included loud parties, yelling and blaring TV sounds that sometimes continued until 4 a.m. “Ms. Polden says she suffered from lost sleep and exhaustion which harmed her health, work and academic performance,” tribunal member Maria Montgomery wrote in her decision this week. “The evidence shows that, for 10 months, the strata responded by gathering more information, attempting to mediate, and sending bylaw infraction letters that it later stated it would not act on. It is clear none of these measures were effective.” Rude awakenings Polden’s log details many of the complaints against her upstairs neighbour in unit 1210, beginning with a party on the night of June 3, 2023 that continued raging until 3:30 a.m. “Ms. Polden says she tried to speak to the tenant of 1210 to ask them to turn the music down but they would not come to the door,” the decision reads. Weeks later, she documented being woken up at 1:30 a.m. to “shrieking and laughing sounds from the balcony,” which were accompanied by more loud music that kept her awake for hours. She reported some of the incidents to her landlord, which passed her concerns along to the strata, which passed them along to the owner of the upstairs unit that July—along with a warning that they could be fined for breaching a section of the building’s bylaws prohibiting behaviour that “unreasonably interferes with the rights of other persons” to enjoy the property. The tribunal heard no fine was actually levied until the following summer, despite the problems continuing through fall, winter and spring. The $200 fine was issued in June 2024, approximately one week before Polden was scheduled to move out. Unwanted visits After the first complaints were passed along to the landlord and tenant of 1210, Polden said she heard her upstairs neighbour and others “discussing violent acts they would commit” toward her if she reported them again. She continued to do so anyway. In another logged incident, Polden said she tapped her ceiling with a broom after loud noises interrupted an online meeting she was attending, and that the upstairs neighbour then came to her door and “began to aggressively slam her fists against it” for half an hour. She reported a similar incident in April 2024, after Polden had called the police on her neighbour in the middle of the night. “Polden provided a video that shows very loud knocking on her front door,” the decision reads. “Her microwave clock indicates the time is 1 a.m.” The tribunal heard Polden left home to sleep elsewhere on multiple occasions during the months-long ordeal, either out of fear for her safety or in search of sleep. ‘Why don’t you just move?’ In its defence, the strata suggested there was insufficient proof the noise was coming from unit 1210—and that it could have been coming from an alley, or a neighbourhood pub located a block away. Montgomery found that idea “unconvincing and unreasonable” in the face of Polden’s video evidence. The tribunal member also balked at the strata’s position that it did not pursue timely bylaw enforcement because the 1210 tenant denied causing any noise. “While this may have complicated the strata’s investigation, it did not relieve the strata of its obligation to investigate bylaw complaints and enforce its bylaws,” reads Montgomery’s decision. “The strata was required to review and consider Ms. Polden’s evidence and gather its own evidence if necessary.” The strata did do some investigating and follow-up—which included sending a council member to speak with the neighbouring units on 1210’s floor, and holding two in-person hearings in February and April 2024—but Montgomery found the response to Polden’s complaints was inadequate. During the last hearing, Polden’s landlord recalled a council member interrupting her tenant while she was speaking and asking, “Why don’t you just move?” Montgomery ultimately ordered the strata to pay Polden $5,000 for the loss of quiet enjoyment of her former home she suffered due to the disturbances. “Ms. Polden’s reasonable expectation was that the strata would investigate the bylaw infractions and take steps to enforce its noise bylaw,” the tribunal member wrote. “The strata’s response to the complaints violated that reasonable expectation.”
