Rant

Hopefully this blog will provide new owners and members of council with the facts they need to make informed decisions - as repair and maintenance obligations of the strata have been avoided by council members and strata agents contrary to the best interests of Owners for years, and we would like this to change. 

This is important. The strata is shirking and offloading more and more of its responsibilities onto vulnerable owners. It has reached the point that it has become normalized, as it is cheaper, faster, and easier to take care of it yourself than to sue the strata corporation. That is why we pay strata fees to cover maintenance and repairs that are the strata's responsibilities and end up paying for those things ourselves, effectively paying twice. The strata acts negligently, or corruptly, causes foreseeable damage, and unfairly offloads the predictable costs and devastation onto us. It is costing tens of thousands of dollars for Unit 409, and it is costing me my health and welfare.

Defective Crane toilet tanks

Defective building structure and tub installation

 

Defective electrical installation

 

 Destruction of landscaping

Destruction of trees and landscaping 

Flood damage to water soluble concrete

Water damage to building substrate
 

Destruction of common property

 

Destruction of trees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geotechnical damage 

 

 

Geotechnical damage

Material defects

Voided warranties

 

Destruction of trees 

I am not talking about our own conduct or our own repair and maintenance responsibilities. The maintenance of common property and repairs of strata insured losses or defective building materials or labour that the developer, strata, or other owners are responsible for, or that the strata covers for units other than 409, fall under legislated protections and responsibilities, not the least of which is the duty to act honestly, in good faith, and in the best interests of Owners.

Legislation requires owners to pay strata fees - and in return requires the strata corporation to provide repairs and maintenance of buildings and common property and insurance against major perils such as water escape at full replacement value. We are continually paying strata fees for 25 years and the strata corporation is continually failing to provide the corresponding benefits to us. The strata has been repeatedly diverting strata funds to special interests, many corrupt and destructive, while we keep living with warped doors, damaged walls, and sinking floors. We are persistently subjected to retaliation and harassment for complaining about the damages caused to us by others, negligently, or maliciously.

The bylaws of Sunridge Estates require owners to pay strata fees - and in return requires the strata corporation to repair and maintain the common property - and the structure of the strata lot. We pay strata fees for benefits we are continually deprived of by significantly unfair actions of the strata corporation - including failure to provide insurance coverage or file an insurance claim before the time to do so expired, failure to complete repairs to damaged structures in our strata lot, failure to reinstate trees we paid a special levy to reinstate, failure to reinstate the function of our strata plan patio, and failure to treat us fairly. Council has been breaching duties specified in our bylaws for more than 10 years.

For more than 25 years we paid in good faith for benefits which we are deprived of by the strata corporation's unfair allocation of funds and failure to honour its legal obligations. Our lives should not be made miserable while the use and enjoyment of our property is spoiled for years while we wait for structural problems to create an immediate danger to safety or life before problems are remediated. It is council's duty to order replacement value repairs to the structural areas of our strata lot. Take away our sinking floors, and cracked walls that are the structure of our strata lot and unit 510 would fall straight into our garage.

The unrepaired damage to unit 409 remains. Such repairs are under the sole control of the strata corporation, which forbids individual owners from making repairs on their own. The strata's obligation is a LEGAL one, which is ongoing and unmet, creating over 10 years of disruption in our lives.

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We wanted to replace our carpets with laminate to relieve my allergies, but couldn't do it until the substrate was repaired. It is still not repaired.

I used to load our patio with plants and flowers every summer, lock the doors to our bedrooms and get a neighbour to come in to water, while we went away on vacation, but we were unable to do that because our warped doors would not stay latched while we waited for the strata for 10 years. We are still waiting, in a living nightmare that never ends.

We can't even screw our hose onto our taps anymore despite paying exorbitant premiums for the Willis warranty on the building envelope. We pay strata fees for insurance but do not get the benefits.

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The water damage in our unit was caused by the negligence of our former neighbours in Unit 510 above us, and we face the risk of further damage by the negligence of another former neighbour in Unit 411 next to us who eliminated the water shut off access from that strata lot. Although this may not worry anyone else, we would like the strata to provide confirmation that the original water shut off in that strata lot is restored before there is an accident.

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Repairs that the strata started in 2003 for water damage to our unit from an accident in unit 510 have not been completed; leaving our strata lot with warped doors, cracked walls, and sinking floors for more than 10 years. I have never been able to access to a copy of the relevant strata insurance or the information contained in it; so as usual I'm working as well as I can while wearing a blind fold, without access to material factual data.

I have no way of knowing whether the repair benefits of the insurance policy in effect at the time were incident-based or claim-based; and since the insurance policy was changed at some point in 2003, I don't even know for sure how much the deductible was on July 23, or even if there was strata insurance; however, I do know with certainty that:

• no insurance investigator ever inspected the water damage to the interior of our strata lot;
• strata management allowed the time period for making a claim for this accident to expire;
• access to information I was legally entitled to was denied continually without legitimate reason;
• the 2003 cost of the water damage to unit 227 was approximately $28,000, and
• repairs of similar or greater damage to unit 409 are still not completed.

We would like these repairs completed. PLEASE. We would also like a reasonable explanation for the unfair allocation of funds to repair unit 227 and not unit 409; including the roles of Al MacLeod as a real estate professional and member of council, Gloria McGee as a commercial insurance sales professional and owner of unit 510, and their relationship with each other in the subsequent sale of unit 510 to city councillor and realtor, Mae Reid, who acted in a conflict of interest and diverted strata funds to demolish and reconstruct extra decks, which were added illegally to the common property, but are now cemented in concrete just as Unit 409 is glued in oppression.

Instead of filing the insurance claim strata management made us wait, alleging that the structural portion of the damage to our strata lot's walls, doors, and floors (damage which showed up suddenly just after, and right below, the accident) might be related to settlement and could be part of the building envelope and better included with that project if there was no immediate danger.

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This proved to be an unreasonable delay tactic and false diversion; the damage was obviously triggered by the accident - but for the accident none of our walls, doors, and floors in that area were cracked or warped or sinking. In 2003 our strata lot had not had a problem with settlement for 15 years - settlement did not become a problem again until about 2006 when the whole complex seemed to start settling after half the trees and most of the plants, all of which had all been planted pursuant to geotechnical restrictive covenants that run with the land, were removed and not replaced.

In any event geotechnical problems provide no protection or remedy for damage known to occur from water. We waited for repairs of the rest of the water damage - but the interior of our strata lot is not part of the building envelope - the water damage repairs to our unit were not completed with that project - or at all.

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I am unaware of any evidence in the minutes, or otherwise, that members of council ever voted to provide full replacement repairs to unit 227, unit 510, or unit 409 - either when we reported the loss, in the year after, or at any time at all. Council members inexplicably claim to know "nothing about it", and as stated so clearly by the councillor who owns unit 227, "don't want to know" anything about it, in spite of my prompt and repeated reports of damage and ongoing requests for repairs.

 The disparity here fits more into a noticeable pattern of arbitrary strata management, including misrepresentations, unfair allocation of funds, and a history of punitive and oppressive actions against the owners of unit 409.

 

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Property managers enabled by members of strata councils did not abide by the Strata Property Act and penalized Unit 409 for trying to expose their conduct.

Even though the minutes reported on the delays and the strata engineer reported in writing that the unrepaired damage in Unit 409 is consistent with water damage, councils are presumably fueled Unit 409's history of sinking and fear arising out of over $50,000 for repairs over a decade ago to Unit 407 for structural damage and to Unit 227 for water damage, and no evidence of strata insurance on July 23, 2003.

Persistent failure to provide insurance records and generally accepted practices in trades and professions with intent to control discount the word of law. Worst of all, strata lawyers abusing strata legislation and defending unfair treatment and libelous character assignation provides continual support in a chain of abuse that we have never been able to control.

Despite professionals through the strata agency, insurance, construction, and legal industries holding out interpretations of convenience that conflict with the Strata Property Act and Interpretation Act, the word of law is not a guideline, it is LAW, and if it is not true, it is at least 

 

 SUPPOSED TO BE THE LAW!