Strata Property Law Project update: highlight for first quarter of 2018 was consultation on governance
April 3, 2018
BY Kevin Zakreski
The ongoing consultation on governance issues for stratas was the highlight of the first three months of 2018 for BCLI’s Strata Property Law Project—Phase Two. The first quarter of 2018 also saw the project committee make progress on land-title and insurance issues. And there were continuing developments in the courts on the Strata Property Act’s new termination provisions.
Consultation on governance issues for stratas
The committee published its Consultation Paper on Governance Issues for Stratas on 13 March 2018. The consultation paper contains 83 tentative recommendations on a whole host of governance issues, including the act’s standard bylaws, meeting procedure and rules of order, voting and elections, proxies, and liens and other enforcement tools for strata corporations.
The consultation paper is open for comment until 15 June 2018. For more information on the consultation paper and on how to make a submission, visit the project webpage.
Progress on common-property, land-title, and insurance issues
The committee continues to work through the remaining subjects on its work plan. At its meetings this quarter, it has continued to develop its tentative recommendations on common-property and land-title issues. It has also now made a start on its consideration of insurance issues.
The committee plans to issue consultation papers on both subjects later in 2018.
Court decisions on new laws on termination
There were two new court decisions on terminating a strata. With a decision out late last year, the BC Supreme Court made a wide-ranging contribution to the emerging case law on the Strata Property Act’s new 80-percent threshold for terminating a strata. A decision by the same court later in the quarter gave a practical application of this emerging case law.
Public notices and events
The project received some public notice at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law. In January 2018, 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.
Clicklaw published a short article on the consultation on strata-governance issues. The consultation on governance issues for stratas was the subject of a short piece on AM 1320 radio’s Legal Hotline program.
Statistics on project publications, meetings, and website engagement
One of the goals of the project is to make its research and conclusions widely known to interested readers. Here are some statistics, tracking how that information is made available to and accessed by the public, during the first quarter of 2018:
- number of publications: one, the Consultation Paper on Governance Issues for Stratas
- number of supporting documents issued: 3, a media release (PDF) announcing publication of the Consultation Paper on Governance Issues for Stratas, a backgrounder on the consultation, and a summary consultation document
- number of project-committee meetings held: 3
- number of tentative recommendations made: 19
- number of presentations, articles, and programs mentioning the project: 3
- number of pageviews of project page: 2212
- number of blog posts on strata-property topics: 12
A look ahead to the next quarter
The project committee’s attention in the upcoming quarter will be on two tasks: (1) managing the public consultation on governance issues for stratas, and (2) continuing to develop tentative recommendations for the remaining subjects on its work plan: common-property and land-title issues and insurance issues.
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.
