Susan Antoniali picks up a cheque at Coquitlam city hall Friday afternoon that represents a refund of a ‘local improvements’ fee she and other Coquitlam homeowners won in a class action lawsuit against the city. Above, she shows the cheque, worth $5,222.81 – her $6,000 original fee, less some legal costs.
Cheques written in 9-year fight with city
By Diane Strandberg - The Tri-City News
Published: July 01, 2008 6:00 PM
Updated: July 02, 2008 10:54 AM
Susan Antoniali wasn’t exactly in the mood to celebrate Friday when she picked up a cheque for $5,222.81 at Coquitlam city hall.
In fact, Antoniali, who spent nearly a decade trying to get that money from the city, plans to give it back to pay for her property taxes.
“It’s not enough for a trip to Disneyland,” she said in an interview from city hall, where she and several other property owners were collecting deposits the city had held in trust for improvements that were never carried out.
This week, Coquitlam will pay out nearly $1.8 million to 248 homeowners who paid a $6,000 deposit for local improvements in order to get a building permit between 1991 and 1999. The bylaw has since been changed and the fee is no longer collected.
(As well, cheques don’t total $6,000 because some of the money was used to pay lawyers’ fees.)
In 1999, Antoniali paid the $6,000 fee to get a building permit to replace a Dawes Hill home that was too small for her growing family. But she objected to the payment from the start, believing her neighbourhood would never agree to the improvements, which are typically only carried out by developers.
She took her concerns to city council and, later, to small claims court but got nowhere.
“I took my little package to council and nobody listened.”
Antoniali, who had a full-time job as a property manager for the city of Vancouver and was raising two young boys, started to get discouraged, and gave up on the matter for a few years.
“I thought, ‘I’ve got to get on with my life,’” she said.
But then she read about another homeowner who had a similar beef and her anger and frustration boiled up once again. The two got together with two other people and canvassed the neighbourhood, leaving leaflets in the mailboxes of homes that looked like they were recently renovated or re-built.
Eventually, there were enough people to hire a lawyer and embark on a class action suit.
Today, Antoniali is thankful to her lawyers, John Dives and Eric Stranger of Dives, Grauer and Harper.
“They took a risk,” she said, noting she’s grateful Supreme Court Justice Deborah Satanove thought she had a point worth considering and helped stick-handle the process, which ended in a settlement.
Friday, Antoniali was pleased to have the issue resolved after so many years, although she didn’t believe it until she had the cheque in her hands.
In the end, though, the money won’t go far.
“I get a year free of taxes.”
dstrandberg@tricitynews.com
