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The city is now moving ahead with 60 charges, which are related to 18 infractions found during a Jan. 31 inspection and another 42 found during an April 19 inspection when people were still living in the building, said Krishna.

They include”quality of life type issues,” such as failure to keep walls, ceilings and floors to an adequate standard, as well as lack of maintenance for bathrooms and toilets.

The family is expected to be summoned to appear in provincial court. If found guilty, each bylaw infraction carries a potential fine of between $250 to $10,000.

Former employee Sam Dharmapala said fines have not changed the family’s practices in the past, and he doesn’t expect anything different this time.

“The Sahotas know how to get around this,” he said.

In March 2012, the Residential Tenancy Branch fined Gurdyal Singh Sahota $115,000 for ignoring several orders to remove mould and repair water damage at Kwantlen Park Manor in Surrey. The penalty was considered precedent-setting because it was the first administrative penalty under the Residential Tenancy Act.

Gratl said fines have proven ineffective in the past, but he’s hopeful the B.C. Court of Appeal will allow two class-action lawsuits, believed to the first of their kind in B.C., to proceed to trial. The lawsuits, filed in August 2016, seek punitive and aggravated damages, an injunction ordering repair work on two Sahota-owned buildings, the Balmoral and the Regent, and an order “appointing, in place of the Sahotas, a suitable property management company” to run them.

“We believe they are incapable of properly managing the buildings,” said Gratl. “We’ve been seeing the same pattern for the last 15 years.”

With Postmedia files

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