Dear Tony: We live in a 22-floor building in Metro Vancouver with two elevators. Owners recently received notice that one of our two elevators would be out of commission for two to three months undergoing an overhaul. The week the work started our second elevator failed on the Friday night.
The council refused to make an emergency call and waited until the Tuesday morning after a long weekend for service. There are many seniors with accessibility issues, and several people in wheelchairs. Fortunately, there were no medical emergencies over the weekend, but owners were prisoners in their building until Tuesday afternoon when the second elevator was finally operating, and many owners were in a dire situation over groceries running low, and families unable to get out with their children and pets.
Basically, no one above the 10th floor left the building for the long weekend. How do we prevent this from happening again? — Ms. M.
Wilson Dear Ms. Wilson: An operational elevator for accessibility is a basic requirement under the B.C.
Human Rights Code. Accessibility to multi-family buildings has been an adjudicated dispute on several occasions, and strata corporations have been ordered to accommodate residents to the extent of undue hardship. The argument of being too costly for emergency service is not valid when the service providers are available, the strata corporation negotiated a service agreement including emergency after-hours services, and the owners are funding the operat.
