Parking spot battle costing others thousands gets B.C. couple kicked from condo

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. – What started as a parking spot dispute devolved into such heavy legal gridlock that a judge has ordered a B.C. couple to vacate their condominium and deal with Mounties if they refuse to let the sale go ahead.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Grauer says his very unusual penalty came after he found the New Westminster woman who owns the property in contempt of court for a tangle of expensive legal actions costing the strata thousands of dollars.

The conflict began in 2006, when Huei-Chi Yang Bea and her husband began disobeying a new parking bylaw that changed common parking at the complex to assigned spaces.

The couple was repeatedly fined, and in May 2008 they filed the first of a series of lawsuits and appeals that were dismissed over and over again with complex owners ordered to pay costs.

Grauer says in his ruling that the proceedings took up countless court hours, frustrated dozens of judges, severely tested the patience of registry staff and cost the strata a lot of money.

He has ordered the complex to sell the unit, granted permission for RCMP to assist if the couple interferes and for the complex to give the pair any money that’s left over — after all costs have been paid.