Our ancestors built their shelters to protect themselves from rain or snow. We do the same today, but with far more complex dwellings. We still must protect ourselves from the same enemy: water. A friend of ours renovated his bathroom with new tiles. Two years later the entire wall of his bathroom collapsed suddenly. The
Articles
You May Outlive Your Strata, But Not By Much: Maintaining Building Good Health
Our experience helping strata protect the value of their buildings shows that residential multi-units tend to have a much longer life expectancy than other types of buildings, about the same lifespan as humans. This similar longevity invites an interesting comparison between humans and buildings. It helps to start with good genes, a quality construction and
Home Inspection: Putting Steroids on This Required Part of Selling Your Home
If you’ve ever bought a new home, then you know the drill. You decide to sell, and the real work begins. 2 huge phases are needed: (1) get your current home ready to put on the market, and (2) get the new home ready once you move in. Within those 2 phases there are 2
Selling Your Strata or Condo: Preparing for the Dreaded Home Inspection
If you’ve ever bought a new home, then you know the drill. You decide to sell, and the real work begins. 2 huge phases are needed: (1) get your current home ready to put on the market, and (2) get the new home ready once you move in. Within those 2 phases there are 2
Taking the “?” Out of the “What if?” for Strata Owners
The news over the years hasn’t been kind to Strata owners. In British Columbia, the leaky condo crisis of the late 90’s and early 2000’s continues to leave its mark. “By 2003, the B.C. Homeowner Protection Office had identified about 65,000 leaky condos across the province.” Damages and repair costs ran into the billions of
Avoiding Negative Surprises: Out of Control Condo Fee Increases Can Be Avoided
Our hearts go out to these Condo owners and board members. Such types of negative surprises, either for new buildings, or older buildings with insufficient reserves, damage the harmony that should be the norm when you live or work in a communal building. In this case the increase might have been unavoidable, but for most condo situations
The Calm After the Storm?: Don’t Wait Till After the Storm to Reflect on Risk Planning
November 12 – 15, 2021 will go down in this writer’s mind as the dates when he wished he’d built an ark! Many people are in “the same boat” according to the many news sources, mainstream and local, reporting stranded people and vehicles, plumbers run off their feet with busyness, restoration companies that can only
Common Property: Understanding Your Maintenance Responsibilities
Do you live in a Condo/Strata? Do you understand your maintenance obligations? The following article, published November 20, 2021 in the Victoria Times Colonist, answers some of the misunderstandings and confusions associated with Strata/Condo living. Here’s the link: https://www.timescolonist.com/life/condo-smarts-stratas-walkways-driveways-and-backyards-are-common-property-4777055 Contact Us
A Different Reality: Post Disaster Realities and Pre Disaster Risk Preparedness
I love listening to the stories my boss tells regarding building maintenance mishaps. Not mishaps that occur during maintenance, but ones that occur when maintenance was either not completed properly, or someone decided to “take the risk.” But while taking the risk is a decision based on actuarial competence and statistical probabilities, disasters remain aloof,
Predictive Analysis and Your Banker: What Your Banker Wants to See to Approve a Mortgage, and How Predictive Analysis Provides That
A friend told us how they cleaned their home top to bottom to prepare for the Bank inspection for their Mortgage renewal. They wanted to make the best impression to get favourable terms. When you live in a Strata your banker not only looks at the inside of your home, the part you own, but
Predictive Analysis: A Day 1 Necessity
We at Canadian Strata Fund Track Solutions (CSFTS) are driven by the goal to reduce negative surprises for Condo owners. We all live with surprises in life and the only constant seems to be change. But when you live in a Condo or any other type of managed home, peace of mind is what homeowners
Consent Agenda: Making Your Meetings More Efficient
My career of 40 years included one dreaded function that I doubt I’ll ever be sorry is gone – The meeting. Why? Well, we always had to meet as a group thinking that it was necessary before we could accomplish anything worthwhile,
