The Condominium Manual

According to the provincial government, the majority of all new housing starts involve strata properties. In a dozen municipalities, strata properties now make up more than half of all taxable properties.[1]

In December 2011 the provincial government proclaimed in force several important strata requirements.[2] The most significant changes involve depreciation reports and contributions to a strata corporation’s contingency reserve fund (“CRF”). Some changes are immediate, while others come into effect at different times over the next two years. This update reviews the changes that most concern strata owners, strata property managers and real estate licensees.

Every strata development involves a strata corporation. Subject to the Strata Property Act and the regulations, the strata corporation can enter contracts to buy or sell property or services, and a corporation can sue or be sued.

When you buy a condo apartment, you automatically become a member of the strata corporation by virtue of becoming the registered owner of a strata lot in the strata plan. The Strata Property Act requires every strata corporation to carry out fundamental duties.

The Strata Property Act defines the term “owner developer” as the person who develops the strata project. The “owner developer,” on the date he or she applies to deposit the strata plan at the Land Title Office, owns the underlying land or leases the land from a public authority for a term of at least 50 years.

Historically, the law allowed landowners to subdivide their land into two or more separate pieces. The owner of any piece of land also owned the buildings on it. But what if the owner of a building wanted to subdivide it into several parts with different owners? Although an owner could subdivide land, the law did not easily permit the owner to subdivide a building into separately owned parts. The strata concept is the solution.