Strata councils may want to review their current pest control measures.

A tribunal has noted expert opinion stating that once rats infect a building, it’s difficult to get rid of the pests.

This was cited in a dispute before the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT), which involved damage caused by rodents in a mice-infested condo building in Vancouver.

The quarrel arose after rats chewed the water supply line to a dishwasher and caused extensive flooding at the affected unit.

The owner, Iwona Gerlich, claimed $5,000 in damages in an application before the CRT.

The amount covers a range of costs, including her insurance deductible, pest control fees and supplies, and lost wages while she was dealing with the flood.

“The flood damaged the kitchen, living room and hallway, and Ms. Gerlich says she had to live outside the strata lot for a time while the damage was being repaired,” tribunal member Lynn Scrivener wrote in her reasons for decision.

However, Scrivener denied Gerlich’s claim for damages.

The CRT member ruled that the “available evidence does not establish that the strata’s pest control strategy was unreasonable”.

This “even if it did not take the best possible approach”, Scrivener wrote.

Gerlich had argued that the East Vancouver strata did not take the rodent problem seriously.

The condo owner suspected that cost was the reason the strata did not address the issue appropriately.

In her reasons for decision, Scrivener related that the strata has had the same pest control contractor since 2002.

The four-storey condo building, which has 54 units, is serviced once a month and everytime a specific need arises.

According to Scrivener, the strata also “took steps to reduce potential rodent attractants”.

As an example, the strata enforced its bylaw against feeding birds, “including against Ms. Gerlich’s strata lot in October of 2019”.

“It also advised the owners not to deposit food scraps in the garden beds in the May 2020 strata council meeting minutes,” the tribunal member wrote.

The strata also sought a second opinion from two pest control companies.

A representative from one of the two companies stated in an email to the strata that there is no “end all” solution for mice, Scrivener related.

This is because rodents are “one of the hardest pests to get rid of once a building is already infested”.

The company suggested installing bait stations at interior and exterior locations, among other recommendations.

The representative of the second company told the strata in another email that the condo can do “exclusion screening” for mice.

However, “there is no guarantee that this will stop mice from coming in as they can fit through holes so small”.

Overall, the recommendations of the two companies were similar to the services being provided by the current pest control contractor.

“Ms. Gerlich argues that the strata could and should have instructed its pest control contractor to take additional steps to address the rodents,” Scrivener wrote.

These additional steps could have included fumigating the building to prevent mice from going through and inside the walls.

In ruling against Gerlich’s claim, Scrivener explained that when a strata corporation retains a professional and follows that professional’s advice, it fulfills its statutory duty, “even if that professional was wrong”.

“So, even if the pest control contractor was wrong about the nature or extent of work required to deal with the rodents, it was reasonable for the strata to rely on the contractor’s advice,” Scrivener stated.

Because the strata “acted reasonably”, Scrivener ruled that it did “not fail to meet its standard of care”.

A check with B.C. Assessment records indicate that the mice-infested East Vancouver condo development was built in 1999. It is located near Burnaby.