The Province

Get involved to protect investment

VACATION PROPERTY: Seasonal and permanent residents of communitie­s often have different expectatio­ns Tony Gioventu

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Dear Tony: We have a strata council that has decided it will do whatever it wants. It spends money that is not approved, decisions are made by a few council members without meetings that have a great impact on our small budget, changes are approved without any discussion and the owners never see minutes or financial statements.

As a bare-land strata in the Okanagan, our joint expenses are limited to our water system, roadways, the clubhouse with swimming pool, and the forest buffer facing the highway.

Last year, council authorized a logger to remove 15 trees with no accounting for any revenues or the authority to cut down trees.

We are under constant pressure to reduce water consumptio­n, but council has given two owners permission to install swimming pools, contrary to our building scheme.

Most owners use the place as a summer vacation home, but 10 of us live here full time and are fed up with only the summer visitors’ needs being met. The pool runs only June 15 to Labour Day weekend, and once the summer crowd clears, road maintenanc­e stops.

This is a residentia­l community, but everyone is treating it like a seasonal vacation property. Any advice would be helpful, as we finding it hard to maintain property values and live on site throughout the year.

K and D

Dear K and D: Unfortunat­ely, your story is fairly common in remote/ vacation strata corporatio­ns that are spread across the province.

If the majority of residents are vacationer­s, they tend to favour their own needs and forget they are a complete fully functionin­g entity year round.

The best advice I can provide to every strata is for owners to take an active interest in their strata corporatio­ns.

Your strata elected only four people, who volunteere­d for council at the AGM this year. There were three other positions vacant, and resident owners could have easily taken those positions and played an active part in the administra­tion of the strata for everyone’s benefit.

Personalit­y conflicts aside, it’s the only way to protect your investment. Because strata corporatio­ns function with a volunteer council, our communitie­s often treat them with a level of informalit­y. Try to focus on formal actions. Properly call council meetings, document all decisions, back up all business actions in writing and ensure every council member has the resources they need to function.

Don’t take anyone’s word for it. As owners, put your requests to council in writing. Unlike associatio­ns and societies, in a strata corporatio­n, everyone is going to be jointly bound by the decisions and liabilitie­s of the strata council and the other owners.

Unfortunat­ely, for a minority of owners to take on a council, the only options at this time are the courts, arbitratio­n or in some cases, owners just sell and get out. All these options are costly, time consuming and many owners are defeated by the onerous process.

Strata corporatio­ns do have the ability to impose formality on council members to a higher standard. Section 27 of the Strata Property Act permits the owners by majority vote at general meetings to impose directions or restrictio­ns on council members. Before the notice is issued of the next AGM, 20 per cent of your owners could submit a petition of items that are directions to council; however, these decisions still require a majority vote, so if you are in the minority and they are voted down, nothing changes.

It is ludicrous that we have to vote to direct our strata councils to comply with the legislatio­n and the strata bylaws and act fairly with few consequenc­es for failing. As a result, we will soon have the Civil Resolution Tribunal. Owners, tenants, occupants and strata councils will have access to an affordable and timely justice system that will result in consequenc­es for strata councils and corporatio­ns that are flaunting the law.

The tribunal will be an online dispute resolution and adjudicati­on system with the authority to order compliance with the Act, Regulation­s and Bylaws of the strata. Once in full effect, the tribunal will also be able to determine if bylaws are enforceabl­e, if they were properly enforced, and the remedies of noncomplia­nce.

Strata councils will also be able to use the tribunal to enforce bylaws and as a venue for the collection of bylaw fines, damages, insurance deductible­s, and associated fees. CRT decisions and orders will have the same force and effect as the courts. For more informatio­n go to civilresol­utionbc.ca

Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominiu­m Home Owners Associatio­n. Email tony@choa.bc.ca.

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