If you’re hungry for another story of bureaucracy run amok, look no further than the case of a White Rock condominium that was damaged when a vehicle crashed into it on a snowy evening last December.
Last week, Ken Harverson, strata treasurer and vice president of the 55-plus building on Thrift Avenue, contacted Peace Arch News to vent his frustration with ICBC and its handling of the file.
One could be forgiven for assuming, as Harverson did, that it would be a simple matter of claiming the damage and having it paid in full.
After all, it’s not as though the building ran a stop sign or wasn’t equipped with proper snow tires.
It turns out, however, that despite the condo’s ongoing status as a stationary object, its owners are on the hook for damages sustained in a car crash.
Imagine having a vehicle come blasting through the front of your home and learning that you now owe several thousand dollars, not because of anything you’ve done or failed to do, but simply because your building exists where it does.
ICBC’s rationale for the charge is frankly bizarre. They’ve calculated the amount they’re willing to pay based on the building’s value in 1988 and factored in deterioration.
A vehicle, a stereo, a smart phone – literally anything that loses value as time passes – is a deteriorating asset.
You know what isn’t?
A home.
Over time, a residential building may indeed suffer wear-and-tear, but its value doesn’t decrease as a result – certainly not in this market, anyway.
It’s fair to assume the units in this building, many of them occupied by people on fixed incomes, would sell for significantly more today than whatever their asking price was 35 years ago.
It is indeed a head-scratcher.
The logic is so odd, in fact, that shortly after PAN posted the story on our website, Harverson heard from two major TV stations, who soon aired the story across the entire province.
It seems ICBC saved a few thousand dollars by applying a formula created for motor vehicles to a building, and then used the money to buy themselves a bit of bad publicity.