Owners allowed access to records
Tony Gioventu
Province
Condo Smarts: Our strata corporation has just finished our major construction for our leaky condo repairs. We have had several sales in the past three months, and are just about to finish the final statements for the accounts. One purchaser demanded to see a copy of the engineering reports and the final report identifying what work was done. We have two questions on which we get mixed answers. Do we have to disclose the reports and the repair results? What gets credited back to the account as revenues and who gets the refunds, if there are any, and how is the refund date created? We can’t find anything in the act that establishes the refund date.
— Cy Merrill, Surrey
Dear Cy: The contracts, records of repairs, warranties, and correspondence that relate to the repairs are all part of the documentation described under section 35 of the Strata Act. An owner or agent of an owner is permitted access to either review or request copies of those records, and the strata corporation must comply within 14 days of a request for copies of the documents. The strata may also charge a fee of 25 cents per page per copy.
The end of the project is a bit more complicated. The Strata Property Act does not set any description of how a due date or completion is established at the end of a special levy. Even though a project is complete, there may still be other rebates or costs associated with the special levy that have to be completed before the final accounting is complete. The strata council will have to decide when the project, including accounting, is complete and then issue the refunds, if any, based on that date. The recipient is the owner of the strata lot on that date, and that owner is the person/company registered on title at the time the refund is due.
Tony Gioventu is executive-director Condominium Home Owners’ Association. Send him questions at [email protected]
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