CondoAdvisory Blog » Legal/regulations

No More Rental Restrictions

keith — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:45:27 +0000

There has been an interesting change to the Strata Property Act in British Columbia. For any new condo development that filed its Rental Disclosure Statement after December 31st, 2009, and in which the disclosure statement reserves the right to rent units for a period of time (which most do), the strata will not be able to enforce a rental restriction. So now the only way a rental restriction will be possible is if the developer files a Rental Disclosure Statement which prohibits rentals. I don’t think this is likely as most developers want to have the option to be able to rent units if they cannot sell them, but time will tell. This will certainly give investors more certainty when purchasing condos for rental purposes.

Leaky Condo Owners Let Down Again

keith — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:38:53 +0000

Well, it is amazing to me that with recent admissions that there are likely a large number of leaky building still out there and not dealt with, and with a large number of people experiencing financial difficulties in these times, the Provincial Government has decided that it is not longer necessary to provide assistance to leaky condo owners through the Home Owner Protection Office. Also nice that they have lead people to believe that they were considering injecting more funding to help things out and then they announce on a Friday afternoon that the program is dead and the deadline for any remaining applications is that very afternoon. That is fair, lead people to believe that all will be OK and then cut them off at the knees with a couple hours notice. I am usually one to understand the position of both sides in most situations, but here I have to say I find this disgusting on the part of the government.

City of Vancouver to allow secondary suites in new condo developments

keith — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:52:52 +0000

The city is taking an interesting position accommodation in the city, now allowing condo owners to have secondary suites. This should allow more people to be able to afford condo ownership, as well as provide more much needed housing.

Government considers more requests for leaky-condo repair loans

keith — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:29:24 +0000

Hopefully the Government will make good on this. Read more here.

Insurance companies not honouring new leaky condo warranties?

keith — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:55:38 +0000

Well this was bound to happen, just like any insurance or warranty, the providers will try and find a way out and if they can they will. Of course does this really mean they are doing something wrong, well that is up for interpretation. One thing is for sure, it is a bit scary. Read more here

Who Should Be Responsible For Affordable Housing

keith — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:10:20 +0000

There is a situation right now in East Vancouver where a Developer is offering tenants more than they are required to to vacate their units. At issue of course is that they are affordable units and the developer will tear them done and build new condos, town homes etc.

OK, of course we don’t like to see people who cannot afford more expensive housing put out on the street, that is just not right. But the real question here is who is responsible for providing this housing. Why is it private companies and individual owners that must do this, where is the government in this, maybe they should spend less time putting restrictions on private companies and individuals to try and pass the buck to them and come up with a plan of their own.

In this case if the developer has purchased the land as if following the laws, what is the problem. It gets tiring listening to these cases and the rulings of the tenancy boards etc. Why go into the property business, if the government wants to control it why don’t they buy it.

Again, please don’t misunderstand the fact that I do feel sympathy for those who have to find new housing, I just think the responsibility is being passed on rather than dealt with.

Buyers Beware, Condo Developers May Sue if You Don’t Complete.

keith — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:39:41 +0000

Well this really is not a surprise, but it is just something that we have not really seen much of before. A couple in North Vancouver is now involved in a Lawsuit with a developer for not completing on a pre-sale contract. The Developer is going after 7 in total right now. Read full details in the Vancouver Sun.

In the past Developers would not have had much case as they usually gained from being able to re-sell units in a higher market. Now they are on the other end. If you have a pre-sale contract and you are considering not completing on it, it is best to go through all options with the developer and get legal advice before making any moves.

Downtown Vancouver to See Less Residential Develpment!

keith — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:25:35 +0000

Photo Courtesy of: SqueakyMarmot

Looks like the city is planning to slow or even stop residential development in the Core/Financial district of downtown Vancouver. The idea is that it will help spur more commercial or office development which has been moving away form downtown due to lack of space and high cost.

Personally I this makes sense in general. There is already an abundance of residential condos downtown and this may help keep values up for them, as well as give more people a reason to want to live downtown.

Of course taking a extreme position on anything is often a little much. I think what makes the most sense is to plan ahead for a mixture of development types to achieve the desired outcome. The problem is that over the past number of years things have been heavily weighted to the residential tower developments so now the city want to go to the other extreme to counter the effects. This may make sense in the short term but I hope they plan for a better mix sooner than later and then we may not have to swing back and forth between extremes over and over again.

Read more about the cities plans at “Proposed zoning changes favour commerce over condos” at straight.com.

Move in and Move out Inspections a Must for Tenants and Landlords!

keith — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:41:56 +0000

There are always thorny issues when it comes to relations between Landlords, Tenants, and the Residential Tenancy Board.

As is pointed out in an article at Straight.com , The Law states that in order for a Landlord to be able to make a claim against the Damage deposit, and any further claims they must have a Move in and Move out inspection filled out in writing and acknowledged by the tenant and landlord. It would seem to be common sense, just like when you rent a car, if there is no inspection done when you pick it up then there is going to be trouble when you bring it back if there is damage.

To protect yourself as a tenant, and a landlord you must do these things and you must get it in writing.

As the case discussed in the Straight.com article points out, regardless of the law, cases can go either way. In this case there was no inspection reports filled out but the landlord was able to make a successful claim against the tenant. Now this hardly seems fair but if there were reports done there would not have been a problem, all would have been in writing and there would have been nothing to dispute.

This case also points out that the Residential Tenancy Boars is inconsistent so you better make sure you protect yourself.

Now in this case I find it interesting that the tenants do not seem to be denying that they caused damage, or at least some, so I can see where the Board may have felt they were just trying to take advantage of the law and the fact that no reports were taken, in fact it seems that they asked the Board before moving out if the fact that there was no report would mean that they would get their damage deposit back. What would they ask this unless they felt there was a reason for the landlord to keep it? In fairness, I don not know any of the details here so I cannot place blame on anyone. But certainly if you do not protect yourself you are open to people taking advantage of you.

Wood Frame Condos Could Grow Higher in BC!

keith — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:58:19 +0000

I found an interesting article today about the fact the the BC Government is looking at changing the Building code to allow wood frame building to be built 6 stories high rather than the current 4 stories.

This would certainly make it possible to build certain buildings that would not have been viable before with concrete construction. Also, will possibly make for some more affordable options for buyers out there.

I guess my only question is how high should we be building with wood. Obviously we want to make sure all our buildings are structurally sound, will last a long time etc. We all want to assume that if it part of the building code it must be OK, but don’t forget what happened with leaky condos and the building code at the time. if we use that logic there should not have been any leaky condos.

Would love to hear form any builders, engineers etc. on this.