Basically if you have a contract in place with a management company already you have to get a 3/4 vote from the owners and then give proper notice to the management company. Management is a large job so make sure you have enough of a committment from council. Just the calls alone and preparing Form B and selling packages is a bunch of work and you need to have something in place for emergencies as well. I would say if you have more than 30 units you might want to consider sticking with a management company. Also you could consider having the financials looked after by a management company and then do the rest self managed.

Hello all. Am really glad I discovered this site. Am Resident Property Mgr for a very large (over 100 Units) self-managed property and proud to say it runs extremely well. Receiving many positive comments from realtors, etcetera, while being compared to non-self-managed buildings in the neighbourhood. I will be pleased to share some of my thoughts and insights on how we accomplished this, and how Strata Owners might achieve their own self-management success. Looking forward to reviewing this entire site. Info it contains is really great!

daveto: Will definitely be keeping this site in my 'favourites' and visiting often. Look forward to contributing.

Your site is well designed, pleasing to the eye, contains a good balanced selection of topic areas, and am personally grateful to see "self-management" as a topic.

You might want to add 'Property Managers' to the focus list of 'Strata property Owners' and 'Council Members' within your opening "WELCOME TO TALKSTRATA", as we are often the ones on the 'front line' so to speak, especially when we are those in residence.

I am so glad I found this site. We are an eight unit complex, self managed. We are having problems with one owner who has not paid strata fees in over a year and has illegal activity going on in her home. The police are aware and we have a lien and are forcing sale. Any comments and/or advise would be greatly appreciated.
would also like to hear from anyone who has a maintenance schedule. where do you start??
jgavel

I recently bought into a strata. Bare Land Title, and self managed (100 units). Up until about two weeks ago, I didn't really care what was going on, that is until I recieved this E-mail (*** attached). Obviously there are some real issues here. There are serious other allegations which I haven't included, due to legal ramifications. I just want to know how I myself, as an owner, can get these issues resolved. Should I get a lawyer?
 
*** Strata council has been passing too many bylaws without going through the AGM...such as only having one annual AGM a year instead of two a year as stated in the Strata Property Act and "XXXXXXX" bylaws (this idea was presented by none other than XXXXX XXXXX...hmmm, last I checked, he doesnt live down here, how does he have any say). Second - Council decided that they were to only have 6 members this year, but hey our bylaws state that we are to have 7 members each year...hmmm are they scared of who might of gotten elected on this year if they had the extra seat... Third - Every council member is to have a ONE year term, none of this two year stuff... These need to be brought up at the next meeting, and I think we need to ask to elect the 7th member to council and that everyone's term will expire at the next AGM...

Strata bylaws can only be changed at an AGM or special meeting of owners after proper notice and each change requires a 3/4 vote of owners (see section 128 of the SPA). Also, under this section of the SPA the bylaw has no effect until it is filed in the land title office. As for the vacant council seat were there not enough people willing to serve on council ? (This is a problem in some stratas.)What do your bylaws say about the term of office for strata council ? Some stratas have bylaws allowing for 2 year terms with election of half of them at each AGM. However section 25 of the SPA is commonly interpreted as requiring the entire council to be elected at each AGM.

You may be able to get advice on how to proceeed with your complaints by first consulting one of the strata associations. Other than hiring a lawyer and going to court you can do your own homework on what the SPA requires and apply for either mediation or arbitration as provided in the SPA.

If you don't have a copy of the SPA it can be viewed online at:

http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/statreg/stat/S/98043_00.htm

My name is Edward Trowell, I am the owner of #79 XXXXXXXX. I'm sure most of you share my concerns with the current issue of strata fees and city utilities. I'm certain you may have alot of questions regarding this, so I decided to write up a few facts pertaining to the issue at hand. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

Fact 1.) January 24th 2007. "Motion to seperate the strata Fee into two parts, water, sewer & garbage for $61.40 and $63.60 for the maintenance of Strata" ( 'quote' minutes of AGM, provided by council).
Fact 2.) November 20th 2007. Very little information was provided to the owners regarding the proposed budget. There was also no allowance for the budget to be ammended prior to the vote. Therefore, the fiscal budget was voted down at the A.G.M.
Fact 3.) As per Fact 2, Strata Property Act, Sect.104(3) "Until a new budget is approved, the strata corporation may spend money out of the operating fund only;
(a) on the type of expenses that are set out in the previous budget and that usually occur once a year or more often than once a year, and
(b) up to the maximum amount set out in the previous budget for each category of expense
Fact 4.) There has never been a motion for council to remove strata's obligation to pay the city utilities.
Fact 5.) On page 7 of our bylaws, under ' Duties and Obligations of Strata Council ' (g) it states council will " pay all sums of money properly required to be paid on account of all services, supplies and assessments pertaining to or for the benefit of all Hays Vale owners. "

Fact6.) Council does not have the power to remove an expense (City Utilities) from the budget, nor do they have the power to remove a portion of our strata fees. This must be voted on by all the owners at a General Meeting.
Fact 7.) Council has misinformed ALL owners in regards to the "Utility Issue" Council Chairman's letter dated February 4th 2008 "as you the Owners decided when you seperated the Strata Fees from the Utilities at the AGM" (please note Facts 1 and 4)
Fact 8.) The council Chairman informed me that council will only pay the city utility portion of their budget, if the owners accept a strata fee of $145.00 ( note: $140.00 strata fee was voted down at the A.G.M.)

I will make an attempt to gain 25 signatures, of owners in good standing, in order to address this matter at the Special General Meeting (please see attached), scheduled for Tuesday February 19th at 630pm in the Eagle Room. Unfortunately I am unable to attend the Special General Meeting personally, therefore I thought it best to inform everyone to the TRUE facts, so that you may all make an informed decision on this matter. If you wish to add your signature, please contact me at XXX-XXXX ASAP (8am - 10pm daily)

Please make every attempt to attend the Special General Meeting
and if you go, please bring this with you

I've included this copy of my petition to council for your reading.

Petition to 'The Owners, Strata Plan #X' Council

We the undersigned, members of "The Owners, Strata Plan #X", wish to make an addition to the agenda for the Special General Meeting, to be held February 19th 2008. Strata corporations are democratic, and run on democratic principals, such as equal voting, election of representatives, majority rule, and the right to raise issues. [ Please refer to 'Strata Property Act' Sect. 46(2&3) ]

ISSUES: 1. Review of the passed motion carried on January 24th 2007. "Motion to seperate the strata Fee into two parts, water, sewer & garbage for $61.40 and $63.60 for the maintenance of Strata" ( 'quote' minutes of AGM, provided by council). Specifically the fact that half of our Strata Fees are missing on the latest budget proposal.

2. Request an ammendment to the proposed budget to include the full Strata Fee, and the City Utilities Expense.

You may know this already but the strata fee is a product of the budget and the budget must be approved at the annual general meeting by majority vote in accordance with section 103 of the Strata Property Act.If the budget is not approved at the annual general meeting, section 104 requires that a new budget be presented to the owners, at a special general meeting within 30 days, for approval by majority vote.Until a new budget is approved the strata corporation may only spend in accordance with the previous year's budget or for emergency purposes.

I am not clear on how your utilities will be paid if they are no longer included in the strata fee. Wouldn't this require a changeover from one meter for the entire strata to a meter for each individual unit ? If each owner does not have a meter and an account with the utility company the strata corporation will continue to be billed. Unless it collects a high enough strata fee the strata corporation will be unable to pay the utility bills which utility companies will continute to send it. Under this circumstance the chairman could well get his wish for a court appearance when he faces the utility companies for non-payment.

A conflict resolution committee might work but the committe would need knowledge of what the Act requires and it sounds doubtful that the chairman would agree to such a thing. To help resolve the dispute you could file for arbitration under section 177 of the Act, which the chairman could not avoid, but you could end up sharing the costs of the arbitration and it could be as costly as going to court. You could also try for a mediated settlement (perhaps less costly)and could call the Arbitration & Mediation Society for advice in this regard.

It is my opinion that on the matter of flagrant non-compliance with the Act, a strata council must be held accountable and there should be a government agency to call upon to do this so people like you don't have to be out of pocket (perhaps thousands of dollars) to ensure that the law of the land is obeyed. If you agree with this opinion please send a letter to your MLA and the Premier (they usually claim they don't hear much about strata issues). These politicians should be made to earn their high-priced salaries by fixing legislation that is not working for strata owners. Across the province 25% of properties are strata units and in the Vancouver area it is closer to 50% and growing. Each owner has a vote and politicians need to be reminded of this fact.

I suggest you also send a letter to the Premier. He seems to be the one setting the agenda in the provincial government. You may want to ask him why there was nothing about strata property law reform in the recent throne speech.

I cannot refer you to a publication that counsels strata councils on the merits of self-management and the merits of hiring a professionl strata management company. However, from talking to various strata owners about their experiences I can tell you that self management has the advanatge of lower cost(I am sure you knew this one already), more work for strata council members in collection of fees, paying bills, issuing form Bs and answering enquiries from owners. A licensed strata manager should be able to handle all of these things under contract. However, with a 12 unit strata you may have difficulty finding a strata management company that will handle such a small strata. Many will not touch the small stratas as they believe they can make more money serving a large strata. Have you tried getting a quote from one along with a description of the services they would provide for the price? A third option is to contract out all the accounting, fee collection and record keeping to a small business services firm while retaining the signing of cheques, contracts,FormBs etc. This would lighten the workload for owners and most likely cost less than a full service strata management contract and more obtainable than a full service strata management contract.

In response to the posting by grt seeking information; I don't see where he/she says where they are located. As I said back when I first discovered this forum, self-managed is the way to go: it is cheaper, responds more quickly to problems and, with backup access to a property manager, is the way to go. We are substantially larger than you but we do just fine with accounting and trust management by Homelife Peninsula Property Management in South Surrey and self manage the rest. A good property manager can point you in the right direction for trades to make you job so much easier.

My suggestion is that you contact property managers in Victoria and find out who among them is available to do your bookkeeping and legal stuff, Form B etc., and whether they have property managers who might be available for consultation from time to time. Bear in mind that these are busy people and that they are, in some cases, considering getting out of the business of managing condos all together; it seems we are a nuisance by comparison to an individual house or a duplex. I hope that they will continue to provide bookkeeping and consultation services even if they do not any longer provide full management for condominiums. A good property manager will have a list of trades that have a track record and who can be relied upon to respond and do a good job for you. That property manager is the person to whom I referred as "backup access". It is also helpful to have access to opinion on the Strata Property Act when needed from a person familiar with the Act without having to have a lawyer on retainer and this is where an experienced property manager is a huge help. And don't forget that this forum is increasing in value as more people join in the discussions; it would not surprise me at all to find that there are property managers who are members of this forum right now. (The more members, the more valuable.)
Our population is ageing too but that won't be a problem because we don't expect the members of council to actually pick up a tool-belt and DO the needed work, just get the right people to come and do it as needed under their direction. Bear in mind too that tradespeople know how to do the work so all you need do is tell 'em what you need done and leave them to do it, they don't do well with you hanging over their shoulder!

Thanks! Any feelings about the various merits of VISOA vs CHOA BC?

Hello there, and thanks for a great site.

We are a very small self managed strata (6 units) and have functioned very successfully for many years. However in the last couple of years we have had a new strata owner move in who has caused a great deal of concern for the rest of us. She has refused to contribute in any way, shape or form saying that any duty we ask her to help with should be on a purely 'volunteer' basis and she doesn't want to volunteer. Needless to say she knew we were a self-managed strata when she bought, is there anything we can do to force her contribute? We are, after all, keeping her strata fees extremely low on the backs of our own work.

Also, we have a 'no rental' bylaw and this same individual has been renting rooms in her suite on a regular basis and the building has become a bit of a revolving door for goodness-knows-who. Is room rental covered under the 'no rentals' bylaw, and is there a distinction between a roommate and a tenant? The room she rents has it's own bathroom but a shared kitchen, so is not totally self contained.

I could go on and on about other infractions, police incidents, drug activity etc. but at the risk of sounding bitter, I'll leave it here. Thanks in advance for any advice you might be able to offer us.

Hi Talkstrata readers, this thread is getting really long at 28 posts so please don't add anymore NEW topics here. Instead, you can create a new topic re:Self Management by going to:

http://talkstrata.com/node/add/forum/19

This will make the forums a bit easier to read for everyone.

Thanks,

Hi Valleydweller,

Check out this link to see the fee schedule for Land Titles:
http://www.ltsa.ca/fees

There will be bylaws filed as they are filed at the time the developer is building and need to be filed in order for the units to be sold. You likely were given the original copy filed at the time the strata was created as developers rarely change the schedule of standard bylaws.

Call the Land Titles office and they will ask for your strata plan number. They may require you to go in person, otherwise you can ask someone that has an account with BC Online and they can pull it electronically for a fee. People with BC Online accounts could be your lawyer, notary or real estate agent.

While we're not as badly off as you seem to be, we anticipate that we may run into similar problems as the years progress. We're a 12 unit self-managed condo. There are three/four of us who do most of the work. We're looking to get a mgmt company to talk to us in the fall to see what the real costs are for this service. One of us could do the books easy; its the day-to-day repairs that drive me/us crazy. Will let you know what the mgmt compant says . . .

The legal process of having an administrator appointed will be costly and I expect it would be the strata owners who would bear that cost. This is a good reason to avoid having one appointed, unless there is absolutely no other choice.

I would highly reccommend joining CHOA. I think it cost our strata $50 a year and all members (owners) of our strata then have unlimited access for the year. They provided us with a wonderful empathetic advisor who helped educate the then president and I,then secty ,about stratas and our particular problems. Their info is available online (more extensive info accessed by a password to members) and by phone. You can even pay to have an advisor come to speak at a meeting.
We have recently had a special AGM and a council was finally formed after almost a year. The here-to-for uninvolved owners have finally seen the light and realize it is their own investment they have been ignoring. Of course they had to subtly suggest that the two of us that had been begging for help for three years had not done a very good job ! People !!

We are now members of VISOA, and although I feel they learned some about by-law enforcement, they also learned that if they harass a owner eventually, they get fed up and move. This is the strategy they have taken. All I have ever wanted is to have the by-laws enforced and to maintain the property. The Pres., and one director have been parking for free, when I moved in I questioned this. They were very angry and now pay $10.00 a mo. But I am ostercized by the board and was not invited to the strata yearly party. (Ha!) Does this give you some idea of what I am dealing with?? I like my unit, but this is draining my energy. I know that if I seek legal help they will be required to comply with the act. However, I also will incur legal costs to myself.

You mention that a new roof was put on, and that the company came to do repair work afterward. I have worked on a contract in a warranty dept. and usually the work is warranted for a year (or whatever is on their agreement on the invoice)after the work is done. Then if a company has to come and do repairs within the warranty timeframe, the warranty is extended by more months or a year, or whatever their terms are.
If you know the name of the company that did the work on your roof, I would call them myself, about the problem. Waiting until it rains, might push the problem past a warranty period. Personally, I would be willing to stand up there with a hose, if needs be.
In any case, this needs to be addressed asap, by your council. I know that the Strata Act waives liability of a council member if they are acting in good faith. However, I don't believe it covers neglect. I think they could be held responsible.
In another post you say, "I like my unit, but this is draining my energy. I know that if I seek legal help they will be required to comply with the act. However, I also will incur legal costs to myself."
Something to think about... I am not sure what the legal cost would be, but I just finished paying $17000.00 (give or take a few hundred dollars) for my previous "leaky" condo. Shortly thereafter, I tried to sell the condo and had the most difficult time as buyers wanted to make certain that if there were any further issues, that we would be financially responsible.
So, paying legal fees are small compared with the cost to repair the exterior and inside walls because water ingressed where a roof was not build or replaced properly. Since it is the strata's responsibilty, I myself, would get legal counsel how to recover the legal costs that were brought about by strata's neglegince. Record everything...Keep dates etc.
After all is done, recover your energy level by moving!