Two B.C. residents claimed that their neighbours were “unreasonably sensitive” to the bass in their new sound system.
A ruling from the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, however, disagreed and nailed them for thousands of dollars in damages related to the nuisance they created.
The two neighbours who filed the court action were seeking $3,500 in damages due to the noise, which was so bad to them that they ended up selling their unit and moving out.
Things went bad in February 2022 when the couple bought a new sound system. The neighbours started keeping a sound log, which the CRT found to be accurate.
The neighbours complained about the impact of the bass on their quality of life, but the sound system’s owners said there was nothing they could do about the Sonos system, adding that, “You and all other neighbours have to get used to the system.”
During the next few months, the neighbours logged 20 different “noise incidents of varying length.
“Some were a few minutes long and some lasted several hours. All noise entries were about loud bass,” reads the CRT ruling.
The applicants even started using an app that measured the sound levels.
The applicants eventually got the strata council involved and the president agreed the noise was “too loud.”
The applicants say the bass was so loud that the walls would “tremble.”
In the end, the CRT agreed with the applicants about the noise.
“I find that the applicants experienced significant and unreasonable bass from February 1 to June 23, 2022. I find the noise was intolerable for an ordinary person,” says the ruling.
The CRT has now ordered the respondents to pay the applicants $3,675 in damages, plus the CRT fees.
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