A B.C. developer who built townhouse condos, mostly in Surrey, with roof overhangs as a solution to the leaky-condo problem, is facing at least three lawsuits from stratas, alleging the overhangs weren’t property designed or built.

The strata owners of a complex of 81 townhomes have been fighting for repairs to their roofs since 2011, about five years after the three-storey wood-frame buildings were built in Surrey.They filed a claim against the warranty provider, Travellers Insurance Co. of Canada, and the developer, architect, engineers and framer, seeking repairs for structural defects in the roofs of the 12 buildings that made up the complex, that if left unprepared “posed a real and substantial danger to owners and other persons,” according to a lawsuit filed by the owners.

The strata in the suit said the gable and dormer roofs had “structural defects in their design, workmanship and/or materials,” which included “inadequate supports for the overhangs.”

The strata filed a claim against its insurance policy, called the 2-5-10 warranty, which was mandated by the B.C. government at the end of the leaky-condo crisis in the 1980s and ’90s, and provided two years’ coverage for labour and materials, five for the building envelope and 10 years for structural defects.

The claim was accepted and the repairs done but they “did not correct the defects,” the lawsuit says.

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