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

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 Read more…

BCLI receives visit from scholar researching strata properties and natural disasters

Earlier this month, Prof. Elizabeth Toomey visited BCLI to discuss legal issues that may arise for strata properties in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Prof. Toomey is a faculty member of the School of Law, University of Canterbury, which is located in Christchurch, New Zealand. In late 2010, the Canterbury earthquake struck that city, causing widespread damage. An aftershock in 2011, which was centered even closer to Christchurch proper, caused even greater damage and loss Read more…

Highlights from the Spring 2016 Legislative Session

28 June 2016—In May 2016, the 40th Parliament of the BC Legislature completed its 5th Session. The legislative assembly passed 24 bills. In this blog post, you’ll find a brief summary of the laws that were enacted. Two acts are particularly relevant to the work of BCLI and CCEL. Leading up to the promulgation of the Miscellaneous Statutes (Signed Statements) Amendment Act, 2016, the BC Legislature recognized BCLI’s efforts in assisting with reform of the Read more…

BCLI director Thomas Spraggs wins 2016 CBABC Innovative Workplace Award

  We are pleased to announce that Thomas Spraggs, who was recently re-appointed to the BCLI Board of Directors, received the 2016 CBABC Innovative Workplace Award. Mr. Spraggs is the Principal of Spraggs & Company Injury Lawyers. According to the CBABC website, the award is in recognition of Mr. Spraggs’s “creative thinking and leadership in developing innovative strategy and its workplace implementation.” In recognizing Mr. Spraggs, the CBABC highlight his prioritization of team-based collaboration resulting Read more…

Alberta court strikes down “pointless” fines levied against strata-lot owner

In Condominium Corporation No 072 9313 (Trails of Mill Creek) v Schultz, 2016 ABQB 338, a master of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench refused to enforce a condominium corporation’s repeated fines against an owner who was in breach of the condominium’s bylaw against underage occupants. The case contains some interesting comments on the use of fines as a means to control owners’ behavior, procedural fairness and the need to give reasons in enforcing bylaws, Read more…