B.C. couple wins $3,600 in noise complaint damages

A B.C. couple who took their neighbours to small claims court after months of being kept awake has won more than $3,600 in damages.

According to the province’s Civil Resolution Tribunal, the couple was disturbed by their neighbours new sound system first in February 2022.

After asking the neighbours to keep it down, the neighbour texted back saying, “I can’t do anything…to be honest,” according to the ruling.

“He said this was because he was using a Sonos-brand system, which was ‘the best sound system in the world’. He added, ‘You and all other neighbours have to get use[d] to this system.'”

The couple, Rukshila Levelton and Michael Levelton, kept a log of the noise. “At times, the wall would ‘tremble’,” another neighbour in the strata told the tribunal.

“From February 5 to June 18, 2022, the applicants noted 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 … For most entries, the applicants said they took measurements of the noise with a phone app. These levels reached as high as 63 decibels, which I find are likely roughly accurate given the other evidence,” the tribunal found.

While the Leveltons moved out of the strata in November last year, the tribunal awarded the couple $3,500 in damages, plus the $175 court fee.

Anushka Madushan Indrasiri and Nathasha Lankeshwari Vithanage have 30 days from the ruling to pay the couple.