BC Supreme Court holds that compliance with statutory obligation to pay common expenses “cannot create an independent legal obligation between a strata corporation and the party to whom the expenses are paid”

Although Interville Development Limited Partnership v The Owners, Strata Plan BCS2313, 2017 BCSC 1947, is a case primarily concerned with civil procedure, the reasons for judgment do contain some interesting comments on section 14 (1) of the Strata Property Act. That provision requires a strata corporation to pay common expenses during the interim-budget period—or, as the legislation puts it, “[t]he strata corporation must pay the expenses that accrue in the period beginning the first day of Read more…

BC Court of Appeal: Strata corporation entitled to recover actual legal costs for registering and enforcing lien

In The Owners, Strata Plan KAS 2428 v Baettig, 2017 BCCA 377, a decision released as October came to a close, the Court of Appeal for British Columbia clarified the reach of a strata corporation’s lien on a delinquent owner’s strata lot. Overturning a chambers judge’s decision, and rejecting an earlier BC Supreme Court case, the court found that the reference to “reasonable legal costs” in section 118 of the Strata Property Act entitled a strata Read more…

Ontario condominium reforms come into effect today

The bulk of the changes to Ontario’s Condominium Act, 1998, brought about by the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 (PDF), are slated to come into force on 1 November 2017. Marking this day, Ontario has posted a new set of forms for the act. Ontario’s Ministry of Government and Consumer Services also announced today that the Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario begins service today. The authority “will help ensure stronger consumer protection for people Read more…

The Financing Litigation Series: Third-Party Litigation Funding

This blog post is the second in a six-part series showcasing each of the six financing models explored in the Study Paper on Financing Litigation (PDF), published on October 4, 2017, and recent developments in British Columbia. To read other posts in the series click here. Third-party litigation funding is the practice of an outside party, who has no personal interest in the litigation, offering financial support to a litigant. Funding can derive from private and Read more…

Alberta Court of Appeal grapples with distribution of proceeds from strata’s termination

Kay Kay Corporation v Condominium Corporation No 072 4807, 2017 ABCA 335, was an appeal of a decision of chambers judge “to reduce the apportionment of the sale proceeds to 14 units out of a total of 188 condominium units.” Those “sale proceeds” resulted from a termination of the condominium under Alberta’s Condominium Property Act. The court of appeal allowed the appeal, concluding that a scheme of distribution based on the proposition that a condemned unit is Read more…