In the Supreme Court of BC, Veronica Franco, assisted by Alexandra Andrisoi, recently won a dispute concerning an easement (which refers to the right to use someone else’s land for a specific purpose) with respect to parking spaces.

The petitioner owns a three-story commercial building in Vancouver and leases the ground floor of the building to Staples Canada, Inc. The respondent is our client, the strata corporation for the adjacent residential condominium tower.

In 1997, the developer of the commercial building and the residential tower granted the petitioner an easement of the adjoining parking lot between Staples and the condo development.

The petitioner used the parking spaces not just for Staples customers, but also as a pay-per-use lot. In other words, the petitioner ran a commercial parking lot in the easement area.

A dispute arose when the petitioner claimed that the easement also grants them the ancillary right to erect a security gate on the south side of the easement area.

In rebuttal, Veronica argued that the easement does not allow for the construction of gates, because the easement does not allow the petitioner to use the area for pay-per-use parking in the first place, but rather the lot is to be used only for customer and visitor parking.

The BC Supreme Court ruled in our client’s favour that the easement does not allow for pay-for-use parking. Read the full judgement to learn more.