Dear Tony: Our strata council entered into a contract to change all of our lighting in common areas to LEDs to increase light levels and reduce the cost of electricity. They did not obtain the . . .
Dear Tony: With so many people at home now, we have an increasing number of noise-related complaints. In our mid-sized Nanaimo apartment building constructed of wood, normal sounds like washing . . .
I attended a couple of large company Zoom AGMs and admired the way a dedicated software platform helped the meeting to run smoothly and report in real time. I’m curious if you have heard of any software vendors targeting AGMs for the smaller residential-building market. Stephen Wittman, Vancouver There are several platforms and services available to the public, such as Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Meetings and Zoom. CHOA has test-run other platforms that claim to have the solutions, but they are either too costly or do not provide any better services. The challenges for most platforms are the same. How do we integrate the use of the format with the requirements of the Strata Property Act and bylaws of each strata corporation for registration, proxies and voting?
Our manager has instructed us, however, that we must make the entire adjustment in March and cannot make it over the next 10 months. We also have a new owner who is refusing to pay the adjustment, claiming that since they did not own the unit in January and February, they shouldn’t have to pay. How is a strata corporation expected to balance a budget if we cannot address the adjustment, and where in the act does it require us to collect the fees in the next month?
G.R. Morris, Vancouver This matter has recently been before the Supreme Court of B.C. under strata plan LMS 4385, which was challenged on retroactive fees.
Janet W. Due to the high replacement cost values and the earthquake exposure that exists in B.C., most strata corporation policies are written on what is called a subscription-property policy. A subscription policy can have anywhere from two to 20 different insurance companies involved. Each insurance company takes a percentage of the property risk, a percentage of the property premium and, in turn, each of those insurers pays their same percentage of any insured loss that occurs. An example of a subscription-property policy might be as follows: insurance company A insures 45%, insurance company B insures 25%, insurance company C insures 20%, insurance company D insures 10%. So how does this get negotiated with a best-terms clause? Traditionally, when insurers quote to subscribe on a property policy for a percentage less than 100%, their quote has always been subject to a best-terms clause.