Homeowners sue after finding out their condo tower wasn't built to code
CBC
More than two years after finding out their building wasn't built to code, dozens of condo owners in Surrey, B.C., are suing the developer and contractors behind the project.
Homeowners with units in the building filed a lengthy lawsuit this year against the developer, contractor, construction manager, architect and engineers — just about everyone who had a hand in the tower's creation — claiming their homes have lost value.
"The construction deficiencies and dangerous defects have resulted in continuous property damage and loss to the [strata]," the claim said.
The lawsuit is the latest development in more than seven years of investigations and disputes over the tower — which, according to the lawsuit, was supposed to be a "state-of-the-art" home for hundreds of families when it was completed in 2013.
The Ultra, a modern concrete-and-glass building, stands on a dead-end street just a few minutes' walk from Surrey City Hall. There are more than 360 units in the building, with a penthouse listed for as much as $1.6 million.
Problems with the tower were made public in 2019 after two engineers involved with the building were suspended.
The first, John Bryson, resigned and agreed to never work again as an engineer in B.C. after an investigation found his structural designs for the building did not meet B.C. building code, specifically when it came to the building's capacity to handle high winds and major seismic events like an earthquake.
A consent order detailing the case said Bryson used the wrong national building code instead of the code B.C. had in place to design certain parts of the building. Certain mandatory calculations weren't done at all, investigators said.
Bryson's partner, John Zickmantel, was suspended for a month for failing to finish his independent review of Bryson's work.
The owners' lawsuit this year claimed the developer, contractor, construction manager and lead architect were responsible for catching Bryson's mistake. It claims they didn't properly supervise design and construction.
The claim also named the city, saying it had a duty to ensure designs were up to code.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
As for the safety of the building, the original engineering investigation did not comment on how Bryson's mistakes might have affected the integrity of the building.
The purpose of Engineers and Geoscientists B.C. (EGBC), which regulates engineers in B.C., is only to investigate whether engineers did their jobs properly.
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