Third-anniversary update of the Strata Property Law—Phase Two Project

Third-anniversary update of the Strata Property Law—Phase Two Project

July 4, 2016

BY Kevin Zakreski

BCLI officially started Phase Two of the Strata Property Law Project on 4 July 2013. This post is a review of the highlights of the project’s first three years.

Terminating a strata

The early years of the project were focussed on terminating a strata. In 2014, the committee published its Consultation Paper on Terminating a Strata (PDF). This consultation paper garnered one of the highest levels of public response of any of BCLI’s law-reform consultations. These responses were taken into account in the committee’s Report on Terminating a Strata (PDF), which was published in early 2015. The report’s key recommendations were: (1) the voting threshold for voluntary termination of strata should be lowered from unanimous consent to 80 percent of all eligible voters; and (2) to protect the interests of any dissenting owners or registered chargeholders, the strata corporation should be required to obtain an order from the supreme court, confirming that termination is in its best interests.

The committee’s recommendations were implemented in fall 2015, by the passage of Bill 40. Bill 40’s provisions on termination will come into force on a date set by regulation. The government has yet to announce that date.

Complex stratas

After completing work on termination, the committee moved on to give extensive consideration to the three topics at the heart of its examination of complex stratas: sections, types, and phases. The committee is currently reviewing a draft consultation paper on complex stratas. It hopes to publish this consultation paper later in 2016.

Governance, common property, and land-title issues

Once work on the consultation paper on complex stratas is complete, the committee plans to move on to consider its next set of topics: selected issues concerning strata governance, common property, and land titles.

Extension of project term

In early 2016, the project’s funders and its volunteer project committee agreed to extend the project’s term to December 2017.

Project committee

BCLI has been assisted in carrying out the project by an all-volunteer project committee (PDF) made up of experts in the strata-property field.

Committee member Larry Buttress has recently decided to step down from the committee, coinciding with his retirement in June 2016.

Mr. Buttress has served on the committee since its formation in fall 2013. BCLI and the committee are grateful to Mr. Buttress for his insightful and valuable contribution to this project.

Project statistics

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:

• Number of publications: 2
• Number of supporting documents: 11
• Number of committee meetings held: 30
• Number of presentations and articles mentioning the project: 14
• Number of BCLI blog posts about the project and strata-property law: 35
• Number of visits by scholars interested in strata-property law: 2
• Number of pageviews for project webpage: 2541

Thanks to our supporters

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 through its first three years:

• the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia
• the Notary Foundation of British Columbia
• the Ministry of Natural Gas Development and Responsible for Housing for British Columbia
• the Real Estate Council of British Columbia
• the Real Estate Institute of British Columbia
• the Strata Property Agents of British Columbia
• the Association of British Columbia Land Surveyors
• the Vancouver Island Strata Owners Association
• the Condominium Home Owners Association