Legal
June 4, 2025 Published by South Alberta Chapter - By Dana Hagg
Fairness Required When Disabling Key Fobs of Airbnb Guests
From the Spring 2025 issue of the CCI South Alberta CCI Review
When it comes to court costs, Alberta is a “loser pays” jurisdiction. That is, by default, the loser has to pay the winner’s court costs – or at least, a good chunk of their costs. If the winner was only partially successful, the court may reduce the costs award. The same is true where the winner engaged in misconduct. An example of such misconduct recently arose in an Alberta Court of Appeal decision.
In Porter v Condominium Corporation No 042 5177, 2025 ABCA 87, the unit owner (Porter) had been operating an Air BnB in breach of the condo bylaws, and had “flagrantly” breached Court orders obtained to enforce the bylaws. Porter challenged the condo board’s conduct in Court, and the condo won. Porter appealed, and the condo won again. However, despite the condo board’s significant win, the Court of Appeal only awarded the Board meagre costs.
Specifically, the Court was unimpressed with the Board’s decision to deactivate the Air BnB guest’s key fob without notice to her. Even though the bylaws prohibited Air BnB’s, as confirmed by court orders, the Board still ought to have warned the Air BnB guest before deactivating her key fob. This was misconduct, worthy of punishment by way of a diminished costs award.
With the introduction of a condominium dispute resolution tribunal in Alberta under Bill 30, the issue of court costs will ideally fade into a distant memory for most Boards. However, some recalcitrant unit owners (like Mr. Porter) are unlikely to be effectively controlled at the tribunal level.
In any event – regardless of court costs – a condo board should warn innocent key fob holders before locking them out of the building.
By contrast, the Court was not bothered by the Board’s deactivation of the unit owner’s key fob. The Court did point out that the bylaws required the Board to give notice when evicting a unit owner for a bylaw breach. This link between key fobs and condo unit possession is intuitively sensible, and has now been recognized by the Court of Appeal, at least indirectly.
A prudent condo board would observe the bylaws relating to possession and eviction whenever dealing with key fobs and key fob readers.
Dana Hagg
Hmc Lawyers LLP
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