Strata Living in BC Town Hall (Recorded Webinar)

Recorded on: February 24, 2022
Length: 60 minutes

Summary

Lawyer Lisa Mackie and condo expert Tony Gioventu answer questions asked by attendees about living in a strata in British Columbia.

Highlights

In this webinar, you will learn:

Whether a strata can restrict the number of occupants in a unit. [3:30]
Whether an owner can rent out their second bedroom for needed income. [7:00]
What kind of alterations need strata approval and what action you can take now before a neighbour renovates in their unit. [9:05]
Who is responsible for water damage — the owner or the strata — if a common property pipe bursts inside a unit. [14:15]
What your rights are as a unitholder if a neighbour smokes cigarettes or marijuana and smoke drifts into your unit or your yard. [16:00]
Whether the Civil Resolution Tribunal is the only solution available if a strata council refuses to comply with the Strata Property Act. [20:20]
What happens if a strata property manager gives a resident “special treatment” and doesn’t follow a bylaw, including whether strata council will be at fault if the property manager went behind their backs. [23:20]
What factors a strata council may consider, including sufficiency of evidence about a complaint and when a complaint was made, when deciding whether to issue, collect or reverse fines. [27:30]
What happens if a small, self-run strata doesn’t follow the Strata Property Act. [30:00]
Whether you can completely redo your bylaws in one step or if you must change, delete or add each bylaw individually. [33:45]
Whether a spouse, who is not registered on title, can be considered a tenant and therefore eligible for strata council. [36:30]
Whether strata owners have the right to see the correspondence between strata council members and businesses if there are questions as to whether strata council made an honest effort to find the lowest quote or bid. [38:50]
Whether there’s any way to limit the number of proxies per owner when an owner consistently holds more than 30 proxies during a general meeting. [42:00]
What options are available if your strata council president wants to develop another formula for unit entitlements when a large special levy is imminent. [44:00]
How to deal with a situation where a strata council member uses strata resources for personal benefit. [45:10]
What to do when an outgoing strata council doesn’t turn over official strata documents to the incoming council. [47:25]
What you can do if your upstairs neighbour installs new wood floors that make noise transference worse between floors. [49:30]
Whether a strata council in an age 19+ building can exercise discretion to allow a couple to stay after they have a baby. [51:50]
Whether the only legally enforceable age restriction for stratas is age 55+. [52:50]
What happens when a strata council doesn’t record all decisions and, when asked, says a decision was made “between meetings.” [55:30]

Featuring

Lisa Mackie

Lisa Mackie is the leader of the strata property practice group at Alexander Holburn, and a member of the firm’s insurance and real estate practices. Her primary areas of practice are strata property law and residential tenancy law.

Tony Gioventu

Tony is the executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of BC (CHOA). In addition to serving on numerous boards and committees for government agencies and industry associations, Tony is the weekly columnist for The Province, The Times Colonist, and syndicated media across BC.

Attendee feedback

"Excellent webinar! Both speakers were knowledgeable, engaging and so informative; the webinar could have easily lasted another hour!"

"Great session with an excellent host and knowledgeable speakers!"

"Very much on topic for me re: access to records, age/family issues, transparency."

"Clear good pace, and you answered both my questions!!!"

"I thought the presentation was well organized and the speakers were congenial to each other which makes a presentation much more informative and gave a lot of information."
“Could these Zoom webinars occur more frequently? They're always so informative!”

Additional resources

From People’s Law School:

From the Condominium Home Owners’ Association of BC (CHOA):

Condo Smarts archive: an archive of Condo Smarts articles, dating back to 2002
The Essentials for Strata Administration: a guide outlining the basics of how to run a strata

Also:

Strata Property Act
Civil Resolution Tribunal decisions: an archive of tribunal decisions, including on strata issues
Smoke-Free Housing BC: provide tools and resources to help address the serious problem of exposure to second-hand smoke

Strata Living in BC Town Hall