Three residents of a downtown Vancouver apartment building are going to court, alleging the property owners have put them at risk by failing to fix ventilation for nearly a decade.
Aissa Aggoune, Joao Luiz Goncalves and Katia Bolanos all live at the Regency Park Residences at 1225 Cardero St., a property owned by Larco Investments and a numbered company.
They’re seeking to certify a class action lawsuit on behalf of the building’s tenants, claiming negligence on the part of the owners.
“Because of the lack of airflow in the building, the plaintiffs and other tenants have to choose between open windows or uncirculated indoor air,” the suit states.
It alleges that leaves them at the mercy of noise, dust, nearby construction, wildfire smoke and hot and cold weather. They are also exposed to unpleasant smells and mould from built-up moisture. Some have developed medical and psychological conditions as a result, and some have missed work and lost income, the suit alleges.
Goncalves bought an air quality tester, which he said showed carbon dioxide levels in parts of his home at about 4,000 parts per million, four times Health Canada’s recommended exposure limit.
“I was expecting something like that because I can feel it in my health, right? I was expecting something high,” he said.
“(I have) bronchitis, sinus infections, my blood pressure going high because I cannot sleep, because in the night the levels are going up.”>
Global News is seeking comment from the property owners.
According to a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court in June, tenants have been complaining about problems with the building’s HVAC system and air circulation since 2015.
After Aggoune complained that year, the building’s property manager confirmed air wasn’t circulating but the property owners did nothing, the suit alleges.
The suit claims tenants complained to the City of Vancouver in 2017, leading to a pair of inspections in 2018 which found “serious deficiencies with the entire ventilation system.”
When the owners took no action, the city ordered them to hire a professional mechanical engineer to review the building’s ventilation system and prepare a report on necessary fixes, the suit claims.
The owners hired a contractor later that year, who only performed minor repairs and failed to produce a report, the suit claims.
“One of the steps the contractor took was to tape ducts to prevent backdraft. The other work did not fix the problems of ventilation in their units,” the suit alleges.
“The plaintiffs and other tenants continued to experience no or poor ventilation in their units, including a lack of airflow, dampness, mold, smell and secondhand smoke.”
The suit alleges the owners took no further action until tenants again complained to the city this year. The owners arranged another inspection but it resulted in no work to fix the problem or report to the city, the suit claims.
The group is seeking a declaration that the owners have negligently failed to maintain the building’s ventilation system, along with damages for harm to physical health and mental suffering.
The defendants have yet to file a response to the suit. None of the claims have been proven in court.