BCLI recommends new approach to terminating a strata
February 20, 2015
BY Kevin Zakreski
In its just-published Report on Terminating a Strata, BCLI is calling on British Columbia’s legislature to amend the Strata Property Act, reforming how that act deals with cancelling a strata plan and winding up a strata corporation.
“Owners in BC’s oldest stratas could soon be facing some difficult decisions,” noted Patrick Williams, chair of BCLI’s Strata Property Law (Phase Two) Project Committee. “Should they spend money that may be needed to renew and upgrade their stratas? Or should they con-sider termination, leaving the underlying land available for redevelopment? The time is now to ensure that the act contains a streamlined and well-balanced termination process.”
The report contains 21 recommendations for reform. Its major recommendation would see the act move from requiring the unanimous consent of owners and holders of registered charges on the strata to authorize termination to a supermajority requirement. Under this supermajority requirement, at least 80 percent of the strata’s owners would have to con-sent to its termination. In order to ensure that the process gives adequate protection to any owners or registered chargeholders who dissent from the decision to terminate, the report recommends that (unless the strata has fewer than five strata lots) a strata be required, after it garners the support of at least 80 percent of its owners, to apply for a court order authorizing termination as being in the best interests of the strata.
The report and two backgrounders are available at www.bcli.org. It is the first report published as part of BCLI’s Strata Property Law Project—Phase Two.
The British Columbia Law Institute strives to be a leader in law reform by carrying out the best in scholarly law-reform research and writing and the best in outreach relating to law reform.
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Contact: Kevin Zakreski
Staff Lawyer (604) 827-5336
