Strata Property Law Project: 2018 year-end update
December 19, 2018
BY Kevin Zakreski
BCLI’s Strata Property Law Project—Phase Two had an active year in 2018. The project issued three publications and held three public consultations. These consultations took the project’s engagement with the public to new levels. They also set the stage for what will be a burst of publishing activity in 2019, which is set to be the project’s final year.
Consultation on governance issues
BCLI opened its consultation on governance in March 2018, with the publication of the Consultation Paper on Governance Issues for Stratas. This consultation paper contained 83 tentative recommendations for reform, covering a wide range of topics, including bylaws, statutory definitions, general meetings and strata-council meetings, finances, and notices and communications. The public consultation also included a three-proposal summary consultation, which spotlighted high-profile issues for reform on proxies, strata-council elections, and limitations.
Publication of the consultation paper opened a three-month consultation period, which ended on 15 June 2018. During that period BCLI received 290 submissions in total (138 being responses to the full consultation and 152 to the summary consultation). This is the highest level of response to any of the consultations held in this project.
A draft of the final Report on Governance Issues for Stratas is with the BCLI board of directors. Pending the board’s approval, the report should be published in early 2019.
Consultation on insurance issues
September 2018 saw the publication of the Consultation Paper on Insurance Issues for Stratas. This consultation paper set out 10 tentative recommendations for reform, covering areas such as potential expansions to the mandated insurance that a strata corporation must carry, a new approach to dealing with a strata corporation’s insurance deductibles, and enhanced reporting requirements. The consultation paper also contained one question for discussion, concerning whether British Columbia should follow the lead of some other provinces and adopt the standard-unit concept.
The public consultation on insurance issues for stratas just closed on 15 December 2018. The committee has received 88 submissions. The committee plans to meet in January 2019 to consider these submissions and a first draft of the Report on Insurance Issues for Stratas.
Consultation on common property, land titles, and fundamental changes for stratas
The third and final consultation paper in 2018 appeared in early December, with the publication of the Consultation Paper on Common Property, Land Titles, and Fundamental Changes for Stratas. This consultation paper is open for public comment until 28 February 2019. It contains 25 tentative recommendations for reform, covering such topics as the definition of common property, long-term leases of common property by the owner-developer, parking arrangements and section 258 of the act, emerging issues in subdivision control, depicting common property and the vertical limits of limited common property, certificates of payment, and voting thresholds for amending a strata plan, amending a schedule to a strata plan, and amalgamating strata corporations. It also includes a summary consultation, which highlights three proposals representing the three subjects of the consultation paper (common property, land titles, and fundamental changes).
A look ahead to 2019
Three more publications are planned for next year, with final reports on governance, insurance, and common property, land titles, and fundamental changes expected for winter and spring 2019.
Statistics on project publications, meetings, and website engagement
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, during 2018:
- number of publications: 3, Consultation Paper on Governance Issues for Stratas, Consultation Paper on Insurance Issues for Stratas, Consultation Paper on Common Property, Land Titles, and Fundamental Changes for Stratas
- number of supporting documents issued: 8, being a media release, backgrounder, and summary consultation for the governance consultation; a media release and backgrounder for the insurance consultation; and a media release, backgrounder, and summary consultation for the consultation on common property, land titles, and fundamental changes
- number of project-committee meetings held: 10
- number of presentations and articles mentioning the project: 8
- number of pageviews of project page: 5136
- number of blog posts on strata-property topics: 56
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 in 2018:
