I had a run in with one of my family’s strata council recently. Before I tell the story, I’ll share with those unfamiliar that a strata is an ownership structure, where an apartment building or condo building is owned by a large group of people who typically live in the building. This living arrangement is typically more affordable than a single-family home but there are ownership decisions that need to be made such as Maintenance of common areas and building components, services like trash collection and the arbitration of disputes between neighbors. These decisions are made by a group of representatives of the owners who are voted in by the owners every year. These people are called the Strata council. When a building or community is running adequately well most people take little interest in its governance, because they are busy leading their lives. Voter turnout is notoriously low in all sorts of elections and Strata annual general meetings also called AGM’s are no different. Low turnout is the norm. Serving on a strata council can present an opportunity to experience governance firsthand, and for many Strata councils many members who are elected have no prior expertise with governance or prior experience in business. They volunteer their time, and the position comes with a modest amount of power, so, naturally, this will attract some bad actors whose motivation is the Lord over their neighbors,. From my American listeners, this form of governance is similar to the homeowners association that you may have heard about in the news. One article that I have linked in the show notes, accurately describes this type of ownership as been controlled by “neighbourhood governments that have brought abuse, acrimony--and seemingly absurd litigation.” http://www.ccfj.net/HOAgenLoathe.html In the case of my family member’s dispute, there were some minor alterations done to the inside of the unit which included flooring, paint, and countertops. The Strata president is a rather sensitive person to noise and when returning from vacation noticed the downstairs neighbour, my family member, had workers making noise associated to the upgrade. It was alleged that the noise was happening outside of working hours, after 5 PM. One such incident happened during daylight savings clock adjustments and the Strata president strolled downstairs to tell the worker to be quiet because it was after hours, however, because the clock had fallen behind by one hour, it was in fact, not 530, but instead 430. The Strata presidents’ error was not caught and my family member received $100 fine for Noise. No evidence was presented, so a fine was issued without any due process. Furthermore, the strata corporation demanded that a permission form be filled out for repairs to common property. Since there was no alteration being done to the common property and only to my family members property inside the Strata lot, permission was not required. My family member asked for detail about the noise violation and stated that permission to make changes to her Property was not required. My family member was given a response that another fine this time for $200 would be issued for failure to fill out this permission form, and for more alleged bylaw violations for noise. My family member asked for a meeting as is her right to be heard by the Strata council. At the meeting the Strata president was very aggressive yelled at her “I don’t like you period” so the real motive for the fines became apparent. Despite his conduct, Strata decided to rescind the $100 fine for noise, because there was no evidence of noise caused contrary to the Bylaws. The Strata council decided to insist that the permission form be filled out retroactively for the alterations that had been completed, with the promise that a $200 per week fine would be issued if this form was not filled out. The basis for this was a very thin case, and that is a provision in the bylaw That permission is required to alter anything The strata corporation was required to carry insurance coverage on. I helped my family Member draft a letter detailing why there is no need to ask for permission, and that this position directly contradicts another section of the bylaws that explicitly states altered property within the Strata lot, that was not originally installed upon construction, is not the responsibility of the strata corporation to insure. Since there were prior owners before my family member, there was no way for Strata to know if the alterations were done to Original fixtures. Given the age of this building, it is unlikely that my family members modifications were the first time floors or paint or the kitchen was upgraded. The requirement for this permission form by Strata and the threat to find my family member $200 a week If they did not comply is plainly a power move motivated by a personal vendetta of the Strata president against my family member. The most expedient way to deal...
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Jan 25 20247 mins