B.C. tribunal settles dispute over ‘odorous rat carcass’ in condo wall

Rats-BC 20240208 A rodent scurries across a walkway outside of the Burrard SkyTrain Station in Vancouver on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

A woman who paid over $2,000 to have a dead rat removed from the wall of her condo must be reimbursed, B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal has ruled.

A decision on the dispute, which dates back to 2023, was posted online Tuesday.

The condo owner had moved out of her unit while work was being done to remediate flooding, according to the decision. When she returned, she said she was met with a “severe odour” and hired the restoration company responsible for the ongoing repairs to open up a bedroom wall and remove a rat carcass.

“Photos show a dead rat in the framing of the wall,” tribunal member Deanna Rivers wrote in her decision, noting a dead rodent had also been removed from the wall of an adjacent unit weeks before and that photos from that suite showed “a rat carcass inside the wall beneath a heater vent.”

The strata, which is responsible for maintaining and repairing the common assets of a condo complex, did not dispute “there is a rat problem” in the building but did argue it was not responsible for removing what the tribunal decision described as the “odorous rat carcass.”

Rivers heard theories from both parties about how the offending rat may have entered the wall but found “no evidence of the actual cause,” and dismissed the strata’s argument that the condo owner had been negligent.

The tribunal also disagreed with the strata’s argument the location of the rat in the wall was such that it was in the unit, and therefore not “common property” and not the strata’s responsibility.

“As (the restoration company) had to remove the drywall to locate the dead rat, I find the carcass was in the building’s structure, which is the strata’s responsibility to maintain,” Rivers wrote.

The decision noted condo owners are not generally “entitled to unilaterally spend money to repair or maintain common property and expect the strata to reimburse them.”

However, an exception exists in case of emergency.

“I find the severe from a rat carcass, and the strata’s statement it would not remove it, created such an emergency,” Rivers wrote.

Given that finding, the strata was ordered to reimburse the condo owner the $2,047.18 she paid to have the dead rat removed. The strata was also ordered to pay $225 in tribunal fees and $170.22 in pre-judgment interest.