A judge has appointed an administrator to handle the affairs of Prairie Heights condo in Saskatoon.  On May 6, Saskatoon Fire Department (SFD) said it was forced to close the “unsafe” high-rise building following months of action to improve living conditions at 1416 20th St. West.   Read the entire article……………………………….

We are constantly challenged whether the election is a majority vote for each council member, those who get the greatest number of votes or, in the event we have only seven nominated, can we simply elect the council with one vote?   Read the entire article……………………………….

A legal dispute between neighbours at a B.C. condo building that began with an overflowed toilet highlights one of several reasons people should never flush dental floss.  The case was decided this week in the province’s small claims court, which ordered condo owner Robin McLean to pay $1,270 for water damage caused to his downstairs […]

The responsibilities of a concierge in a residential building are many, from security and administrative tasks to responding to emergencies. Yet ever since the onset of the pandemic, one task eclipses all others: package management.   Read the entire article……………………………….

Residents of the Uplands Manor building in Lethbridge have been without a functioning elevator for almost a full month.  On May 3, the complex on 85 Foxbend Crescent North was hit by a storm that wiped out their power for a couple of days.    Read the entire article……………………………….

Dear Tony:  How can we determine if a condo development permits dogs and cats or not? We have been looking at condos with our agent for the past six weeks and have encountered pets in many buildings but have discovered it is confusing to confirm whether our two small dogs would be permitted or not.  […]

A Langley woman is considering her next move after facing $200 a week fines for having a dog that’s above the minimum size requirements in her strata complex.   Read the entire article……………………………….

Question: I am an owner and resident of a condominium unit in a 70-plus unit complex. Our virtual AGM is scheduled for the first week of June. This week, there were three or four people from our building actively soliciting proxies. Several of us have complained to the board about this practice, but they say […]

A tribunal has refused a claim to cancel strata fines against a professional violinist who lives in a Downtown Vancouver highrise.  The development’s strata council imposed two $200 penalties on Joanna Lee over noise complaints from a resident below her condo unit.   Read the entire article……………………………….

Dear Tony: What are the limitations that we can impose on an owner who wants to undertake alterations to their strata lot?  We have an owner who has purchased a penthouse unit and has submitted a request to renovate the space, including the removal of several walls, the installation of two new windows and a […]

A regulation that could help increase Richmond’s rental housing stock for young people and families will go to a public hearing next month.  The policy would make it illegal for stratas to restrict the number of condos that can be rented out in a new development. It also bans new stratas from setting age restrictions.  […]

Dear Tony: What are the limitations that we can impose on an owner who is wanting to undertake alterations to their strata lot? We have an owner who has purchased a penthouse unit and has submitted a request to renovate the space, including the removal of several walls, the installation of 2 new windows and […]

An oversized curb in front of a new Leslieville condo has been tripping up residents — and the local city councillor is demanding answers.  The issue is the height — at about 30 centimetres, it’s roughly twice as big as an ordinary curb.   Read the entire article……………………………….

People living in townhouses and units were told they could be required to put QR codes on their front doors and fences to monitor guests under confusing new rules that have been slammed as “utterly idiotic”.   Read the entire article……………………………….

Bobbi Korven says she saw the writing on the wall about the Prairie Heights condo tower two weeks ago.  That’s when raw sewage began seeping and dripping into her suite from the unit above. At that point, she knew the building was in big trouble.    Read the entire article……………………………….

he Saskatoon Fire Department says it is left with no other option than to close the entire Prairie Heights high-rise.  “Despite our efforts to ensure the building was safe, clean and not a fire hazard, we cannot get ahead of the constant vandalism, squatting, drug trade, risky and unhealthy behaviours,” Assistant Chief Yvonne Raymer said […]

Dear Tony:  At a recent general meeting, our strata had a lengthy dispute over how quorum was calculated and whether we could continue our meeting near the end as more than half of the registrants had left the meeting. Including proxies, we were well below one-third of the owners present.   Read the Q&A……………………………..

A Montreal woman who signed a deal to buy a condo was surprised when she discovered the price had gone up by $50,000 – a cost the builder pinned on higher construction costs.   Read the entire article……………………………….

About 90 units in a north Lethbridge condominium complex have been without electricity, water or heat, after a water main break flooded the buildings main utility room.  Residents of Uplands Manor said they were unable to flush their toilets, and were left scrambling trying to save their perishable food items.    Read the entire article……………………………….

Last fall, I bought a condo in Montreal’s Mile End with my partner. It felt like a real accomplishment: I had a bright, two-bedroom apartment in a neighbourhood I love.  However, one thought lingered. In land acknowledgments, it’s usually said Montreal is on unceded land because Indigenous people in the region never surrendered the land […]

Nearly seven months after a fire engulfed a Langford condo and displaced dozens of residents, the damage has yet to be repaired.  “There’s still no real progress on site,” said one of the building’s residents Edward Gonzales. “The first update we got from strata company, was that it was to be finished by March or […]

Dear Tony:  Our strata is a typical older three-floor walk-up in North Vancouver. There is no elevator, and we have a common laundry on the ground floor. In many ways, it is a simple apartment-style building with few problems.    Read the Q&A…………………………………

A Reddit posting shows some Toronto condo residents dealing with massive flooding.  The post labelled “catastrophic failure” and uploaded on Monday identifies the building as Emerald Park Condos at 9 Bogert Ave., in the Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave. area of North York.   Read the entire article……………………………….

Dear Tony: Our strata highrise was one of many hard hit by the insurance increases last year. Our deductible increased to $100,000 for water escape.  Unfortunately, we had a unit involved in a claim resulting from a tragic incident with an owner who passed away.     Read the Q&A…………………………….

Tony Gioventu doesn’t like referring to surging insurance costs facing B.C. strata corporations and condo owners as a perfect storm.  “It’s a bad description,” said the executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of BC.    Read the entire article……………………………….

Dear Tony:  Our strata highrise was one of many hard hit by the insurance increases last year. Our deductible increased to $100,000 for water escape. Unfortunately, we had a unit that involved a claim resulting from a tragic incident with an owner who passed away. We did not have sufficient funds in our contingency in […]

So what happens now to Samantha MacKenzie’s dogs?  The woman owns two dogs, which she describes as “members of her family”.  However, her strata council has ordered MacKenzie to “rehome” one of them.  In other words, she needs to let go of one of her four-legged companions.  This is because the Abbotsford townhouse complex has […]

Residents of a Kelowna condo building will have to pick up their mail at a Canada Post facility for the time being after delivery to the building was suspended.  The reason: a Canada Post courier saw a number of tenants not wearing masks in the building’s lobby.   Read the entire article……………………………….

A British Columbia townhouse owner whose toilet overflowed and caused damage has to pay the $5,000 deductible on the strata corporation’s insurance claim, the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) has ruled.    Read the entire article……………………………….

Question: In the past three years, our monthly condo fees have jumped from $450 per month (in 2019) to $530 per month (in 2020) to a whopping $650 per month (in 2021). As well, the board has told us that our reserve fund is too low. Some of the money from our monthly condo fees […]

Drivers in British Columbia are keener than ever to buy electric vehicles, but the lack of charging stations in condo buildings is a major impediment. That’s one of the findings of a report that was discussed at the Metro Vancouver Climate Action Committee on Friday. The report found that, although adoption of electric vehicles is […]

Residents at the 49-storey landmark Vancouver House tower in downtown Vancouver found themselves walking around in their home in up to an inch of water on Thursday night.  Read the entire article……………………………….

Bikes worth over $11,000 were stolen from a West Kelowna condo complex earlier this month.  The RCMP said it received a report about a break and enter in an underground parking garage along Upper Sundance Drive on April 3.    Read the entire article……………………………….

This is a follow up to our article of March 10 “Modernizing How Organizations Meet”, where we emphasized the need for condo corporations to be able to meet virtually in order to not only be on side with the Condominium Property Act (the Act) when it comes to holding their AGM’s which are supposed to […]

From May 2019 to January 2021, Bryan Pisesky has been monitoring the video captured by the security cameras at the Prairie Heights condo in Pleasant Hill.  He said he was hired by the condo board to compile evidence of criminal activity so the board could evict problematic tenants and clean up the condo tower.    Read […]

Dear Tony: Our strata corporation proposed a new bylaw at our recent annual meeting that will permit other classes of people to be elected to the strata council.  It does not define what this means, and at our information meeting, the council basically suggested it could be any type of person who might fill our […]

A dispute about who must pay to repair a retaining wall at a Summerland stratum brought property owners and a strata council before a Civil Resolution Tribunal.   Read the entire article……………………………….

A Lower Mainland strata corporation that held onto $2,000 to cover damages to a garage door after the owners sold the townhouse, has been ordered to pay the money back.  The strata had argued that the repairs that the former owners had done were “unreasonable” and under its bylaw ordered the notary dealing with the […]

A recent Superior Court decision, arising out of a dispute between two anti-mask condo-owners and their condo corporation, illustrates the dubiousness of mask-mandate enforcement in condo buildings, says Miller Thomson LLP condo lawyer Jason Rivait.   Read the entire article……………………………….

Dear Tony:  As new buyers, we have been looking at several condo buildings in South Vancouver and Richmond.  Our experience obtaining information for most properties has been that the strata councils have been very cooperative and willing to provide records and documents or access to their websites.   Read the Q&A…………………………………

A restaurant has tried to fix the problem of cooking smells, but B.C.’s civil resolution tribunal found the owners broke the strata’s nuisance bylaw and told them to try again.   Read the article………………………………..

One recent case involved Irving and Nancy Kumer, who owned a luxury condominium townhouse on Lower Village Gate, near Spadina Rd. and St. Clair Ave. W., in Toronto. The owners had exclusive access to a small patio that forms part of the common elements of the condominium.    Read the article…………………………………..

Dear Tony:  What happens when owners get to a general meeting, and the proxy votes have already been counted, making the outcome of each resolution already known?    Read the Q&A…………………………….

A tribunal has upheld an Abbotsford strata’s decision to deny an owner an exemption to its non-rentals clause, leaving the owner unable to sell or rent her unit, likely because of “massively higher” monthly fees because of rising insurance fees.   Read the article………………………………….

Surveillance video captured inside a problem-plagued Saskatoon condominium building paints a startling picture of the challenges residents face there.  Prairie Heights, located at 1416 20th Street West, is a known hotspot for police, with 410 calls to the address recorded last year by Saskatoon Police Service.    Read the article…………………………………..