Emily Yu, the Central Lonsdale woman who ran a hostel out of her three-bedroom townhouse, has been found in contempt of court and fined.
The strata council at The Beeches townhouse complex on West 13th Street in the City of North Vancouver took Yu to the Civil Resolution Tribunal in 2017 for violating their bylaw that prohibits short-term rentals. The tribunal ordered Yu to stop immediately.
The North Vancouver townhouse at the centre of a short-term rental dispute. Photo by Mike Wakefield, North Shore News
Yu appealed the original ruling, arguing that her short-term rentals should be grandfathered in because she had been running the hostel for years before her strata banned short-term rentals. That appeal was dismissed in May.
But Yu continued accepting guests in the home from the time of the original tribunal ruling, the strata argued when applying to have Yu found in contempt.
Evidence presented at court on Wednesday included ads Yu posted online and reviews from guests who’d stayed in the townhouse, affidavits from residents who kept a log of tourists coming and going from the townhouse, and Yu’s own affidavit in which she admits she occasionally took in short-term renters even after being ordered not to.
Yu said in her defence that the hundreds of people seen coming and going from her home were just visiting for a few hours and that they were not living there. She also argued she only turned to short-term rentals out of financial desperation.
But Justice Barry Davies sided with the strata. Davies said it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Yu knew about the court order and that she had deliberately disobeyed it.
Davies ordered Yu to pay an additional $4,000 in fines to her strata for continued violation of their bylaws as well as all of the legal bills the strata incurred in their fight to have the ruling enforced.
When it came to punishment for violating an order of the court, however, Davies opted to put off sentencing for four months. Yu promised she would comply with the court order immediately. If Yu reneges on that promise between now and her sentencing, Davies warned the punishment could be far more severe than the $10,000 fine the strata was suggesting.
