I’m trying to get a realistic picture of what it is that our management company should be doing for us and what should be managed by the council. Any anecdotal experience would be great.
Posted Sep 14, 2020, 10:42 PM UTC
Get a copy of the management company's contract. Talk to https://www.choa.bc.ca/
You get what you put into it. The more your strata council follows up on things and keeps the property manager accountable for task completion, the more you'll get out of it.
Kind of an important note is that council members are lay people. You make the decisions, but you need to make an informed decision, so again, keeping your property manager accountable is important. Did you get multiple quotes? Is this the best price? Would you save more money in the long term if you pay more now?
Usually in their proposal the management company will outline all of the duties that they will perform; most of it is the same from company to company. The difference is how timely they follow up on things, and how much insight they can give you to make a good decision.
They do what you contract them to do. The smaller your strata the harder it is to get them to do anything.
Maintenance issues should all be on a bring forward file so they happen automatically every year: duct cleaning, chimney cleaning for units with fireplaces, fire and CO detector checks etc.
There will be a contract that sets out the terms the Strata and the management company have agreed to. Request a copy of that contract to help. Each council member should have a copy.
The BC Government through it's strata website also lists the general roles / responsibilities.
Less is more e.g. these companies are private corporations. The primary agenda is not to comprehensively steward much of anything for an individual strata, and the legal authority for a strata rests with council (via council meetings) and owners (via general meetings). It is not cost effective to be comprehensive. Corners are cut, administrative detail can be loosey-goosey, etc. They are fully indemnified and aren't liable for anything under the Strata Property Act
Strata managers fall under a different law are licensed under the Real Estate Council of BC (RECBC). The RECBC has some information on the role. As does the Professional Association of Managing Agents (PAMA).
Strata how (for council members) ... may be of help for you.
About: "This site is dedicated to supporting people who serve on strata councils. It presents the support as walk-through descriptions of procedures and practices using forms and spreadsheets that will help councillors with the work of caring for a strata. A central theme is that the best interests of strata owners are served by following the guidance of the British Columbia strata laws. If you have recently joined a council, this website will provide an alternative to reading the Strata Property Act and the Strata Property Regulation in order to start building the knowledge you need. While certainly not a substitute for reading it all, you will find much of what you need to know to get through the usual progress of a strata year. You will also be introduced to the Act and Regulation through hyperlinks in the website text. There are spreadsheet templates for your budget and for your financial statement that you will need to operate without the help of a property manager, or to see an alternate view of your information."
I've been on council for about 3 years for a buikding thats about 7 years old. Larger building, over 300 units.
When the building was completed the developer signed on a property manager that wasn't very good and they were let go as soon as council could release them (before I got onto council). Since then we've had a PM that's really good - very prompt with responses, keeps good records of all our maintenance and council requirements, and knows who to contact for any legal, maintenance, and other relevant issues if complications come up. We meet monthly in addition to the AGM and meetings are generally about an hr long, to go over monthly reports, upcoming costs and maintenance work to be scheduled, current events (right now a lot of stuff Covid related) and any bylaw infractions/fines.
Like others said usually the people who come to the AGM or write to council or the PM are either super passionate about their building or have way too much time (I feel for the PM and some of the insane ranty emails he gets). That being said, we're lucky to have council members who have some relevant knowledge (we have two architects, a planner, another fellow who works in property management, a real estate agent, and I work for a developer). If you're close with other people in the building, maybe ask around to see if there are any others who might have some building knowledge - I find it helps make the relationship with the PM better and can help them spend their time wisely working for you.
Good luck!
i do
I suspected you might but I harass you a lot with questions!
I am in the same boat, I'm on a Council for a new build in our first year and we have been rolling with the punches. If you have any specific questions about something you're wondering about, I'm happy to answer and we can trade war stories.
With respect to knowing what services to enter contracts in, and what frequency, your property manager should be advising you on all that. Plus your developer should be letting you know specifically what is needed for your building, based on its design.
I convinced a new friend in our building to run for council. She got in, after the first meeting she ended up putting her place on the market.
We live in a large community with shared expenses and our building is almost 100 units. Our management company has an accounting department that does all the billing, accounts receivable/payable, collecting late fees etc. The manager is our direct contact whom we email about anything. If we want to contract services for painting then the manager will get some invoice quotes from a list of reputable vendors (dependent on budget too) and the strata council is to vote on which vendor to go with. If we want to change the schedule in garbage pickup then we email the manager to do so.
An effective strata is when elected council members are actively participating and contributing on their own free time. Elected members who just sit there to vote yes/no are not effective. In my current strata council, half of us own dogs and are constantly walking around the community to make sure landscaping is done, no deficiencies in the building, review security, talk to neighbors and ask if they have any concerns etc etc. We keep an eye on the garbage situation and made adjustments to schedule (the bins are consistently overflowing due to people staying home due to Covid). In our first year, we consistently met up every month to go over new building deficiencies to submit to warranty to get developer to fix (we devoted countless hours to this and still do). I review accounting statements every month to make sure all costs are accounted for and I inquire if there is any increase in spending.
I don't live in Vancouver anymore. I was a member on a strata council when I did for 7 years.
When I first joined, we fired our management company.
Most of our tasks was to determine priorities for the year in terms of maintenance and upkeep. Lots fo email exchanges on what we needed to do.
The management company is meant to provide advice and contact vendors for us. They also are supposed to manage the financial services, including the contingency funds. It's a good idea to have a treasurer to review financials with the accountant at the company.
Most approvals went thru the strata council president but email discussion was used to reach consensus. President should not be making unilateral decisions.
Council holds meetings about 6 per year, including the AGM. Most discussions are regarding the state of the building, common areas, security or owner /tenant issues (e.g. Noise complaints, break in, fire). Management company is there to listen, take notes, record decisions, provide advice (including legal interpretation of the any laws pertaining to the issue). If they can't provide that advice, they are to seek legal advice from in house lawyers or others like contractors. Any major work, the property manager has to get quotes for work and repairs. If it's outside of operating budget, a special assessment may be needed or the owners elect to use a portion of the contingency. Either way, voting requires quorum to proceed.
My major headache with strata is you have a few people who care very much and have their own agendas. 90% of the residents don't care so you end up having 5 people determine how your house is going to be and your experience living there. I got so many complaints simply because people don't care until it affects them and it's too late, contracts signed, work begins
This is super helpful, thank you!
Eta was it common for you to suggest to the management company hey maybe we need to get dryer vents cleaned or maybe we need to arrange a fire inspection or did they track that for you
It's part of annual maintenance. The new company we hired tracked our maintenance and repairs in a Google sheet. The old company did the same but they were ineffective.
Sometimes you do have to hound them for a bit but are usually quite responsive.
Not OP, but there are typically annual maintenance contracts for those tasks.
How is the depreciation report?
We’re a new build so everything is getting worked out in terms of annual maintenance etc. I just feel like right now I’m advising our management company of services we need to implement which is based on owning a previous property.
We haven’t had our first depreciation report yet. Still going through the warranty portion of our new build
Some things to unpack here.
If you are a new building, the strata corporation as set up by the developer should have contracts in place. I suggest your council read over these carefully, because the initial service contracts are often not market competitive, and sometimes a bit dodgey. I highly recommend paying attention to exit dates, as contracts are often written with a narrow window for you to get out of them, especially garbage/recycling services.
For the depreciation report, you aren't required to have it until 6 months after your second AGM, and it can be deferred by a 3/4 vote. For the first five years it won't be the focus of your attention, as you'll need to get your paperwork ready for the warranty claim intervals. There is no point to doing a depreciation report if you end up in a dispute with the developer over a warranty item.