The B.C. Court of Appeal has struck down parts of a provincial law that allowed safety inspectors to enter any home suspected of harbouring a marijuana grow-op, ruling the legislation violates the Charter right to be free from unreasonable searches.

The Safety Standards Act was challenged by Surrey residents Jason Arkinstall and Jennifer Green. In 2005, the couple refused to allow fire safety inspectors inside their home because the inspectors were accompanied by police officers who did not have a warrant.

The inspectors were first called to the home because of its high rate of electricity consumption. The large house was equipped with an indoor pool, steam room, hot tub, greenhouse and central air conditioning and the couple denied there was ever a grow-op.

But after more than a year of barring the warrantless officers from entering, Arkinstall and Green had their power cut and moved with their young son to a hotel.

B.C.'s highest court said in its ruling Thursday that sections of the act constitute a considerable intrusion into an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy.

Chief Justice Lance Finch wrote municipal officials need more than reasonable grounds to justify such a search and should be required to seek a proper warrant, in which they'd have to show some evidence to support their belief that safety codes are being violated.

"Not only is there a high expectation of privacy in this case, but the inspections constitute a considerable intrusion," the ruling said.

The court also agreed with Arkinstall and Green's contention that the searches had an "aura of criminality."

The couple argued the fact that the searches were inside residences where grow-operations were suspected meant being subjected to such a search raised the spectre of criminal activity.

They said not all members of the community would expect to be subjected to such a search because the searches are not random but target high-energy consumers.

"I respectfully agree," Finch wrote.

"While these inspections are regulatory and while they do not attract the same level of stigma that arises in relation to criminal law searches, it is likely that they give rise to more stigma than would generally be expected from other regulatory inspections."

A spokesman for the B.C. Attorney General said the minister is still reviewing the unanimous court ruling.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association intervened in the case and said the appeal court's ruling is good news for all British Columbians.

"We've been concerned for some time that this legislation was being used as a tool to conduct warrantless searches of citizens' homes and that is a clear violation of the Charter," Grace Pastine, the association's litigation director, said in an interview.

"What the court says in this judgment is that we need to take the right of citizens to be free from searches in their homes very seriously and that citizens have a very high expectation of privacy in their homes."

"The Court of Appeal is recognizing that very fundamental right and is saying that the province went over the line."

Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis conceded the incident could have been better handled.

"We were fledgling at that time, lacked a considerable amount of experience in terms of decision-making and we could have probably done things differently," he said, adding he doesn't believe the inspectors made any "major" mistakes.

Garis said as of January, 1,140 homes had been examined for high rates of electricity use. In only four of those incidents, he said, had residents refused to allow inspectors inside.

Though he cautioned the final decision would have been up to a justice of the peace, Garis said a search warrant for Arkinstall and Green's home likely could have been obtained if officials had applied for one.

The Safety Standards Act first came into effect in B.C. in 2004.