B.C. condo owner fined $30K over noise from son's piano playing

A B.C. woman was fined tens of thousands of dollars for violating noise bylaws in her condo because her son practised piano in the family's unit, according to the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

The dispute dates back to 2021, when Liyan Hu's downstairs neighbour began making complaints about the noise. By May of 2024, Hu had been fined a total of $30,700, and she filed a claim with the tribunal seeking to have all of the fines reversed on the grounds that they were "significantly unfair."

Tribunal member J. Garth Cambrey sided with Hu in a decision handed down earlier this week, in which he ordered the strata to reverse the fines.

The first noise complaint came in August of 2021, when the downstairs neighbour – referred to in the decision as "Mr. Torabi" – told the concierge he was hearing piano noise from the suite upstairs "every day for one hour,” according to the decision.

In B.C., the common assets of a condo building are owned by a strata corporation and managed by a strata council.

The strata's bylaws prohibit the use of a unit in a manner that "causes a nuisance to another person" or causes "unreasonable noise," the decision explained. Provincial legislation stipulates that a strata can enforce its bylaws and levy fines but also requires complaints to be "objectively investigated," the decision continued.

Two weeks after the first incident report, the strata began sending Hu letters saying she could be fined for violating the bylaw, and the matter was referred to a council meeting – where no resolution was reached.

After the meeting, Hu sent a letter to the council explaining that her son plays piano, describing some of the measures she had taken to dampen the sound of the instrument, including adding a carpet and padding, and installing sound proofing on the walls.

"She wrote her son is entitled to play the piano as there is no bylaw that prohibits piano playing. There is no evidence the strata responded directly to her letter," Cambrey's decision said.

In later correspondence, she requested the strata retain an expert to measure the noise, which was never done, according to the decision.

In this case, the tribunal found that the strata – which sent Hu a total of 177 letters about bylaw infractions between 2021 and 2024 – failed to adequately investigate the complaints and failed to determine that that the noise from the piano playing was unreasonable.

"The strata relies solely on the concierge incident reports. Based on my review of the reports, I find the reports simply identify noise complaints made by Mr. Torabi, but they do not address the severity and frequency of the piano noise or otherwise confirm the piano noise was unreasonable," Cambrey wrote.

"What is confusing is that the strata says the concierge reports do not confirm the noise is unreasonable and that Mr. Torabi did not prove the piano noise is unreasonable, yet it still imposed $30,700 in noise bylaw fines against Ms. Hu."

Further, the strata imposed restrictions on when and how often piano playing was allowed in Hu's unit, which the bylaws do not allow and which Hu never agreed to.

"Any limitation or prohibition on piano playing must be because the piano 'noise' is unreasonable based on its nature, severity, duration, and frequency, and substantial such that it is intolerable to an ordinary person. The strata failed to prove these things, so I find it had no authority to restrict the piano playing," Cambrey wrote.

In addition to reversing the fines, the strata was ordered to reimburse Hu $175 for tribunal fees.