A B.C. Supreme Court judge has rejected a bid by a group of owners in an aging North Vancouver housing complex to force the sale of their property against the wishes of other owners who want to remain in the complex.

The president of a condo homeowners' association said that while the property is co-owned, not a strata-titled condominium complex, the case raises questions about what will happen to thousands of older condominium buildings in B.C. that are becoming costly to maintain and are on land ripe for redevelopment.

About half of the 135 owners of the condo-like units in the 50-year-old Cypress Gardens wanted to sell the 3.8-hectare site.

Polygon Pacific Homes Ltd. approached the owners in 2011 to buy their units so it could redevelop the land with new buildings. But the Polygon deal collapsed because not enough owners in the complex wanted to sell.

The petitioners argued that the Cypress Gardens is in need of up to $4.5-million worth of repairs and that they would be unable to sell their individual units for as much money as they could get by selling the entire site.

But their bid was opposed by many residents who claimed that a sale would cause them hardship, largely because they would not be able to afford other housing on the North Shore.

Justice William Ehrcke rejected the petition, saying it would "unjust" to force the sale because many families would be unable to purchase adequate replacement housing in North Vancouver after the sale of their unit

Ehrcke said an order for sale "would force particularly vulnerable people out of their homes, including young children, single parents, the elderly, the infirm, and people of very limited means."

Ehrcke added that "there would be a negative impact on the children, who would suffer the disruption of having to move, change schools, and develop new support networks, if indeed their parents were even able to find new accommodation to purchase, which in many cases is doubtful."

But the Cypress Gardens case does raise a timely issue about the fate of thousands of aging condo buildings in B.C., said Gioventu.

"There is a substantial wave of older projects where residents will have to assess the age of their buildings, what it's going to cost to maintain and whether they should look for other alternatives."

Gioventu said there are up to 3,000 condo buildings over 35 years of age that "will soon be reassessing their cost ratios versus what their other options are".