VANCOUVER – Police in Port Coquitlam were called in on Monday to enforce an eviction order in one of the nastiest battles between a condo owner and a strata corporation ever.
A long-running dispute that began with a disagreement over parking spots had culminated in Hue Chi-Bea and his wife being ordered by the courts to sell his Port Coquitlam condo and move out – only the second time that’s every happened in B.C.
The judge had ruled that the couple had repeatedly abused the court system, costing the strata owners nearly $190,000.
Sunday was the deadline, but the Hues refused to move out.
So RCMP officers were sent to the condo on Monday to forcibly remove them.
“Their lawyer used the RCMP to force me out of my unit,” said Hue. “It’s abuse.”
Strata council president Iuliu Varva said it is unfortunate it has come to this. “Everybody’s suffered and we the owners have suffered the most because we are stuck with probably close to $190,000 in legal fees,” he said.
– With files from Rumina Daya