Completing complex-stratas consultation, making progress on governance issues highlights for latest quarter of Strata Property Law Project
April 4, 2017
BY Kevin Zakreski
The first three months of 2017 were a time of transition for BCLI’s Strata Property Law Project—Phase Two. The consultation on complex stratas closed. The project committee began reviewing its final report for this part of the project. Meanwhile, the committee made progress on examining issues for the next part of the project, which tackles selected governance, common property, and land-title issues.
Consultation on complex stratas
After being open for public comment for 4.5 months, the consultation on complex stratas closed on 15 January 2017. The consultation asked people for their views on the committee’s proposals to reform the law on sections, types, and phases. Respondents had the option to reply to the full 68 proposals set out in the Consultation Paper on Complex Stratas (PDF) or to the three highlighted in the summary consultation (MS Word).
The committee received 36 responses in total. This figure breaks down into 14 responses to the full consultation and 22 responses to the summary consultation. The committee is grateful to everyone who took the time to the respond to the consultation. It has reviewed the responses received at its January 2017 committee meeting.
Based on the consultation paper and the consultation responses, a first draft of the committee’s final report has been prepared. The draft report is currently undergoing committee review. The target for publication of the Report on Complex Stratas is June 2017.
Progress on governance issues
Apart from reviewing the draft Report on Complex Stratas, the committee spent the bulk of its time in the past quarter making progress on issues concerning strata governance, common property, and land titles. The committee has decided to divide its examination of selected governance issues into these areas: bylaws and rules; statutory definitions; general meetings; and financial issues. During the past quarter, the committee neared completion of bylaws and rules. It looks forward to making progress in the next quarter on statutory definitions, general meetings, and finances.
The committee and project staff have also kept a watchful eye on developments in Ontario. During the past quarter, Ontario held a public consultation on draft regulations, which fleshed out the details of the strata-governance changes Ontario plans to bring into force in July 2017. The project will continue to keep abreast the progress of reform in Ontario.
Public interest in implementation of new laws on termination
Bill 40’s reforms to the Strata Property Act’s provisions on terminating a strata continue to draw attention. After the first cases under the new laws were beginning to reach the courts, Business in Vancouver ran a series in March examining the roots of the bill and considering where its changes might lead. Part 2 in the series noted the role of BCLI’s Report on Terminating a Strata (PDF) in the development of Bill 40. Business in Vancouver has also reported on the first strata to terminate itself using the new Bill 40 process.
Other public notices and events
In addition to the Business in Vancouver series, the project received some public notice at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law. In January 2017, project manager Kevin Zakreski gave a talk to law school’s condominium law class on cost sharing in stratas. The talk drew on the project’s examination of sections and types as part of its work on complex stratas.
Statistics on project publications, meetings, and website engagement
Here are quarterly numbers for the project:
- Number of project-committee meetings held: three
- Number of tentative recommendations made: 11
- Number of presentations and articles mentioning the project: two
- Number of pageviews of project page: 394
- Number of blog posts on strata-property topics: 14
Update on work plan and administration
The project committee continues to develop its work plan for allocating issues across its remaining monthly meeting. As of this past quarter, the work plan is now fully occupied until the project’s completion, which is slated for June 2018.
Thanks to project funders
The Strata Property Law Project—Phase Two has been made possible by support from nine funding organizations. Support from the bulk of these organizations is reviewed from year-to-year. BCLI thanks the following organizations for continuing to support the project.
