STREAM OF SUITS
Condominiums built with overhangs to fix leaky problems now facing legal problem
A B.C. developer who built townhouse condos, mostly in Surrey, with roof overhangs as a solution to the leaky-condo problem, is facing at least three lawsuits from stratas, alleging the overhangs weren’t property designed or built.
The strata owners of a complex of 81 townhomes have been fighting for repairs to their roofs since 2011, about five years after the three-storey wood-frame buildings were built in Surrey.
They filed a claim against the warranty provider, Travellers Insurance Co. of Canada, and the developer, architect, engineers and framer, seeking repairs for structural defects in the roofs of the 12 buildings that made up the complex, that if left unprepared “posed a real and substantial danger to owners and other persons,” according to a lawsuit filed by the owners.
The strata in the suit said the gable and dormer roofs had “structural defects in their design, workmanship and/or materials,” which included “inadequate supports for the overhangs.”
The strata filed a claim against its insurance policy, called the 2-5-10 warranty, which was mandated by the B.C. government at the end of the leaky-condo crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, and provided two years’ coverage for labour and materials, five for the building envelope and 10 years for structural defects.
The claim was accepted and the repairs done, but they “did not correct the defects,” the lawsuit says. The suit says the overhangs were sagging and the support rungs were rotating, and the overhangs were being supported by the non-structural frame. That framing was “experiencing increased stress” and the “walls were failing and nails were withdrawing from the wood,” the lawsuit said.
Left disrepaired, the roofs were in danger of failing because of the buildings’ “inability to support the dead load of overhangs, snow loads and loads imposed during maintenance and repairs of the roofs,” the suit said.
After the insurer and developer refused to complete the repairs, “the plaintiff was required to repair one of the dormer roofs as it posed an immediate safety hazard,” the lawsuit said.
There are 331 units involved in the three lawsuits against complexes connected with Lakewood Homes (each project had a name that included Lakewood but was unique to each project).
One of the writs names Jerry Luking as Lakewood’s owner.
Lakewood Homes’ website says he and his brother Hans started the company in 1967 and have built 4,000 homes in Metro Vancouver.
The writ for that development alleges negligence by Luking, saying he “lacked the necessary technical expertise and practical experience to design, build or inspect the condominium’s roofs and overhangs,” and that he “was informed by the developer’s employees, consultants and trades that there were defects” but didn’t investigate or repair them.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. All defendants and third parties to the large and complicated legal proceedings in which various parties were named denied responsibility in their responses to the claims.
Almost all construction lawsuits are settled during mediation and the suits aren’t completed. The owners are asking for the developer and insurance company to honour the building’s warranty or pay damages for breaching the warranty.
One owner, who did not want to be named because the matter is in mediation, said the strata is suing for $13 million.
A man arrested two years ago after a multi-agency project targeting the Red Scorpion gang pleaded guilty to two trafficking charges in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.
Anduele Pikientio, 24, was charged in August 2018 along with Kyle Latimer, his dad Craig Latimer, Csongor Szucs and Jacob Pereira as part of Project Territory, headed by Vancouver police and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.
At the time, police described Pikientio as a member of the notorious gang.
He appeared via video before Justice Kathleen Ker on Thursday and told her he was voluntarily entering guilty pleas to two counts stemming from the Territory investigation.
His lawyer, Joseph Saulnier, laid out some of the facts of the case.
“In approximately March to May 2018, police got two warrants for an apartment in Richmond and went in twice,” Saulnier said. “They found amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin and there were indications that Mr. Pikientio had constructive possession.”
During that same period, on April 23, 2018, in Merritt, “Mr. Pikientio was stopped by police while driving and in the vehicle police found fentanyl and/or methamphetamine,” Saulnier said.
Ker asked Pikientio a series of questions about his decision to plead guilty.
“In entering your guilty plea today, you are doing so without any pressure or coercion. Is that correct?” she asked.
“That’s correct,” he replied. “You’re making the guilty pleas to the counts on the indictment voluntarily and by voluntarily it’s your own free will and choice.”
Again, he replied: “Yes, that is correct.”
Only two spectators were allowed into Courtroom 63 due to social-distancing measures implemented in response to the pandemic.
Crown prosecutor Maggie Loda told Ker that earlier this week Pikientio also pleaded guilty in New Westminster Supreme Court to several drug charges stemming from a Delta Police investigation called Project Green Planet. That investigation into a Delta drug line targeted several of the same accused as the Vancouver-CFSEU investigation.
Pikientio will be sentenced on all his charges in New Westminster on Aug. 7.
Police have said that Territory led to the seizure of 93 firearms, a pressure-cooker bomb, about 50 kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine and other drugs, $833,000 in cash, jewelry worth $800,000 and collector cars valued at another $350,000. A total of 92 criminal charges were laid.
Pikientio’s co-accused are set to go to trial in the fall of 2021.