A Lower Mainland owner denied knowing about short-term rentals in her unit — the tribunal had other ideas
A BC condo owner who faced $89,000 in strata fines for allegedly running a short-term rental out of her Lower Mainland unit will pay just $3,000, after a tribunal found the penalties were either unproven or improperly calculated.
In a July 27 decision, Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) member Alissa Reynolds ruled in Zhang v. The Owners, Strata Plan EPS6068 that the strata's residential section had misread its own bylaw fine structure.
She also determined it had failed to follow mandatory notification steps under BC's Strata Property Act (SPA) before escalating penalties against condo owner Yufeng Zhang.
Reynolds ordered $86,000 in fines reversed, leaving Zhang owing $3,000 plus $125 in CRT fees.
"It did fine the wrong amounts," Reynolds wrote.
The case centred on five alleged short-term rental violations between November 2023 and February 2024 at Zhang's lot in a Lower Mainland building governed by Strata Plan EPS6068.
The strata built its case on security camera footage and electronic key fob data showing guests arriving with luggage and a cleaner accessing the building using fobs registered to Zhang's unit.
Reynolds upheld three of the five alleged contraventions — spanning November 25 to December 16, December 17 to 31, 2023, and February 1 to 18, 2024 — but dismissed the remaining two after finding the strata had provided camera images without corresponding fob data linking the individuals to Zhang's unit.
A British Columbia submortgage broker who continued arranging mortgages for nearly a year after losing her registration has been hit with $55,000 in penalties — the maximum fine available under the province's Mortgage Brokers Act (MBA).https://t.co/V9tWVF4qPR
— Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine (@CMPmagazine) July 15, 2026
Credibility issues undermine Zhang's defence
Zhang maintained she had a long-term tenant in place through a third-party rental agent and was unaware of any short-term rental activity on her property. Reynolds was unconvinced.
A tenancy agreement dated November 2023 was found to have been signed via DocuSign in February 2024 and backdated, a fact Zhang admitted only after Reynolds specifically requested the DocuSign Certificate of Completion.
The document raised "serious concerns about Mrs. Zhang's credibility," Reynolds wrote.
The tribunal also found that the strata had emailed bylaw infraction notices to the same address Zhang used throughout the CRT proceedings, undermining her claim that she had not been informed of the alleged violations.
"I find Mrs. Zhang either knew or ought to have known," Reynolds wrote.
How the strata's penalty calculation failed
Despite its partial evidentiary win, the strata's fine structure did not survive scrutiny. Section 2 sought $1,000 per day for each alleged rental period, but Reynolds found the building's bylaws only permit daily fines after a contravention "continues without interruption" for more than seven days. That meant the strata could charge a flat $1,000 for the first week, then escalate to $1,000 per day thereafter.
More critically, Reynolds found the strata had not completed the two-step notification process required under SPA section 135 — a strict procedural requirement confirmed by the BC Court of Appeal in Terry v. The Owners, Strata Plan NW 309 (2016 BCCA 449) — before moving to daily penalties. That procedural failure limited recovery to a flat $1,000 per proven contravention across the three upheld incidents.
The outcome carries practical weight for condo investors at a time when, British Columbia has been expanding enforcement of short-term rental restrictions across the province.
The province's Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act (STRAA) restricted listings to principal residences in most BC communities as of May 1, 2024, and the mandatory provincial registry has been in full effect since May 2025.
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