The Civil Resolution Tribunal has awarded a B.C. couple $4,500 for enduring longstanding disruptive noises coming from the apartment unit above them.
Patrick Edward Knowlan and Shan He, who resided in a unit of an unnamed four-level concrete apartment building, claimed their neighbour Alan Zenuk, from the unit above, was making unreasonable noises, described as a “series of intermittent taps with what sounds like a glass or steel ball or disc dropped” on the polished concrete floor of his bedroom, the ruling states.
The disruptive noise began in November 2021 and persisted into 2023; the couple told the tribunal they documented 38,621 strikes, as like “long sequences of Morse-code-like tapping,” in the last three months of 2022, an average of 316 strikes per day.
Tribunal adjudicator Micah Carmody found Zenuk liable for the noise in a May 12 ruling, despite Zenuk maintaining he did not cause the noise and was "mystified" at its source.
Carmody judged that Zenuk was not cooperative with strata investigations, including by refusing to let strata council members into his unit to investigate the noise, deeming so "impractical and invasive."
“Even if I accept that the respondent (Zenuk) is not intentionally making noise and does not know the noise’s source, that is not determinative,” stated Carmody, adding, “The law holds that if a person does not create a nuisance, ignorance of the facts constituting the nuisance is not an excuse if they ought to have discovered the facts by use of reasonable care.”
Zenuk claimed noise complaints had persisted even while he was on vacation, although it was not made clear if the unit was empty. The strata investigated mechanical infrastructure between the units and found no issues, according to the ruling.
The couple recorded noise levels using an iPhone app developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, finding peak impulse noises reached 58 decibels (dBA).
All of this caused disruptions to their lives and sleepless nights, according to Knowlan and He.
“I find a reasonable person living in [the unit below] would find this degree of noise disturbance intolerable,” stated Carmody after hearing recordings and accepting witness testimonies from council members.
Zenuk’s $5,000 counterclaim for wrongful accusation causing himself stress and anxiety was dismissed.
