Latest news

Updated 5 May 2026

‘It’s none of your business how I spend your money’ once again sums up the refusal by lessor Westsea Construction to make any financial or engineering information disclosure. The most recent case is the billing of $2.44 million to Orchard House lessees for a modernized fire alarm system, which can be read about here. An earlier example involves a lawyer-written demand for disclosure on behalf of a Vancouver lessee for information about spending, flatly rejected by Westsea Construction; read about it here. If this isn’t bad enough, we cannot even sue for disclosure because the company bills us its unlimited expenses to oppose us in court, which a few of us have been fighting legally since 2018, can be read about here, and which is referenced below. This appalling situation can only be addressed by legislation requiring disclosure. Are you listening, B.C. Madam Minister of Housing?

“Litigation costs” lawsuit hearing was held in November, 2025: It took seven years, and the B.C. Supreme Court-level decision is not yet issued, but Orchard House lessees who refused to pay Westsea’s litigation billings have finally been heard in court. News of a recent precedent on this issue follows in the next item, and the Orchard House lawsuit details are laid out on the page Disputing WS’s Legal Billings.

Court rules that landlord litigation costs cannot be billed to lessees: A B.C. Supreme Court-level justice ruled on 9 September 2025 that lessor litigation expenses to oppose some lessee tenants are NOT billable to all of the building’s lessees. Three lessees at the St. Pierre leasehold in Vancouver’s West End sued their landlord on various questions, with the issue of the landlord billing all of the building’s lessees its legal expenses to oppose the few of them becoming the key issue at trial. This ruling supports the position of a handful of Orchard House lessees who refused in 2018 to pay Westsea’s vast expense to oppose a lessee tenant who had challenged landlord Westsea Construction billing him his share of the building’s re-glazing project. Media have not yet reported on the Vancouver court ruling, nor has its effect on the Orchard House lawsuit yet been resolved. Details will be reported on this site’s page Disputing WS’s Legal Billings.

Surrey lessee families face bankrupting $205,000 billings at Surrey-Newton’s Sun Creek Estates leasehold to refurbish the wood-frame buildings they don’t own, which awful situation demands Provincial action. Read a news summary and slide show prepared for MLAs half-way down this page, or access the slide-show report directly via this link

“It’s time for legislation” a member of Cabinet said to me in a phone call on 25 November 2024. While we’re impatient, we at least know that our need for legislated protections is recognized by more than one member of the new B.C. government Cabinet. The issues affecting long-term residential lessees and details of the Province’s May 2024 public consultation can be read about on this site’s page: We need protection by statute!