Dear Tony: We purchased a condo in Cook Street Village a number of years ago and love our community and our neighbours. Our building is aging and it is time for some significant upgrades.
The first priority is our aging exterior. We installed a new roof two years ago, and now we are planning for our exterior siding, doors, windows and balconies.
Over the past 25 years, many owners have enclosed their balconies and some have gone as far as removing their doors, windows and walls that faced onto the balcony and have extended their living rooms onto the balcony area.
Our engineer and architect have advised us that we will have to remove the balcony enclosures to repair the balconies. This is going to leave without a wall at least six owners who have made significant alterations to their units.
As it turns out, none of the alterations has been done with either the approval of our strata council or with proper building permits.
Half the six owners purchased the units after the alterations were completed by a previous owner. We are being told that the alterations are going to have to be corrected and the enclosures cannot be reinstalled without a significant expense and building permits from the city.
Who pays for the alterations?
Our strata never required owners to sign agreements and the units with walls removed will be a significant cost.
Colin J.
One of the common misconceptions of condo owners and councils is that when common property is altered, it suddenly becomes part of the strata lot and is the responsibility of the strata-lot owner. This misunderstanding mostly results from strata councils not wanting to pay for repairs to the common property that was altered.
The Strata Property Act and Regulations do not permit the strata to make an owner responsible for the maintenance and repair of common property, and strata bylaws do not override the act unless specifically permitted.
The strata corporation is permitted, with the agreement of the owner, to make the owner responsible for the cost of maintenance, repairs and alterations to common property.
In your situation, the balcony enclosures are part of the common-property balconies that are shown on the strata plan. Removal and repair of the common-property exterior is a common expense of the corporation. However, removal of the interior wall without the consent of the strata would be an expense of the owner, as a result of an unauthorized alteration.
The complication that arises is that subsequent purchasers may have received Information Certificates when they purchased, which may or may not have disclosed the alterations or agreements that made owners responsible.
Likewise, historic practices where some owners were responsible and some were not create problems of unfairness. Tracking alterations to common property and implementing, maintaining and administering agreements and records is a daunting task for any strata council. Compound that with routinely changing council members and property managers over a number of years and it is unlikely that even the most organized strata council will have the problem under control.
To establish who will be responsible for the variety of alterations, I would recommend getting a legal opinion on your bylaws, how they were applied and historic activities relating to alterations.
It may be that treating the entire cost of restoration as a common expense is the best solution to ensuring the proper restoration of the building exterior.
CHOA is hosting a one-day symposium on May 10 in Victoria focusing on managing alterations, dispute management, hearings and the CRT. The seminar is set for 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Harbour Towers Hotel & Suites, 345 Quebec St.
For more information or to register, go to choa.bc.ca.
Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association