A renter at a Burnaby condo tower says he is out $481.02 after thieves used someone’s key fob to enter the building’s storage locker area and steal his air conditioner.
Brent Dixon rents an apartment at a highrise on Madison Avenue in the Brentwood area.
In April 2022, he bought an air conditioner for $481.02 and put it into a storage locker assigned to his unit, according a Civil Resolution Tribunal ruling last week.
When he went to retrieve it from the locker in June 2022, however, it was gone, and it looked like someone had tampered with his locker door, the ruling said.
He wasn’t the only one to notice things missing from the storage locker area, according to the ruling.
The strata got multiple reports in mid-June 2022 about stolen belongings.
After reviewing the building’s surveillance footage, it concluded thieves had likely struck on June 3, 2022, when security cameras captured two people entering the elevator just after 5 a.m.
One was carrying a large plastic bin full of various items and the other was pushing a larger, heavy item draped with a sheet.
The suspected thieves were not strata residents, but they had used a key fob to access the elevator and get into the storage locker area, according to the ruling.
The strata filed a police report and handed over the surveillance footage and key fob log to investigators.
Dixon requested the contact information for the owner of the key fob so he could bring a claim against them for the stolen air conditioner, but the strata told him he’d have to get that information from the police.
So Dixon applied to the CRT for an order compelling the strata to either provide him with the key fob owner’s contact information or pay him $481.02 for the cost of the air conditioner.
But the tribunal ultimately ruled there was no bylaw or provision in the Strata Property Act or Strata Property Regulations that would require the strata to provide the information.
As for ordering the strata to pay Dixon $481.02 because it was negligent in the alleged theft of his air conditioner, tribunal member Kristin Gardner ruled that was outside of the CRT’s jurisdiction.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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