Who ya gonna call?
Suzanne Morphet
Sun
If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!
That little ol‘ tune popped into my head while researching this column, perhaps because strata property owners often need their own “ghostbuster.”
Maybe your strata council withholds information.
Perhaps your AGM is “a farce,” as one reader complained recently, saying his strata council refused any discussion about the strata corporation’s budget.
Or maybe you suspect your strata manager is stealing money from your corporation’s bank account.
Who ya gonna call?
The Strata Property Act of B.C. is the legislation that lays out how a strata corporation should operate and govern, but there’s no 1-800 number to call if your strata council isn’t doing its job. Enforcement of the act is up to you — the owners. But when it comes to strata managers not complying with the Real Estate Services Act, that’s a different matter. You have a “ghostbuster” — the Real Estate Council of B.C.
This is the body that licenses real estate agents brokers, as well as strata management representatives. It collects licence fees, inspects office records and disciplines licensees for “wrongful actions.”
A wrongful action may be deliberate — such as theft — or a result of carelessness. Either way, the council (comprised of 13 elected real estate licensees and three people appointed by the B.C. government, and supported by 37 full-and part-time staff) investigates complaints and renders judgment.
Penalties include a reprimand, a fine of up to $10,000 for an individual representative and $20,000 for a brokerage, and the cancellation of a representative’s licence.
In 2009, the council meted out 13 “sanctions” related to strata management; the year before, 17.
But the number of complaints it receives each year about strata managers is far greater: 53 in 2009, 64 in 2008 and 28 so far this year.
The council thinks it’s doing a good job, pointing to the fact that successive governments have “broadened its role.”
Others vehemently disagree.
Deryk Norton, editor of the online Strata Advocate, says “short of stealing from a client, it seems anything goes as far as the RECBC is concerned,” and points to a council decision to suspend a property manager’s licence for six months after he was convicted of four counts of indecent assault against young girls. “Why not license termination?” Norton asks.
Tyler Davis, spokesman for the real estate council, points to an earlier court decision that lowered a 60-day licence suspension the council imposed on a real estate agent to 45 days after he appealed.
Clearly, determining an appropriate penalty isn’t foolproof, but Davis says discipline committees are aware of the principles in sentencing.
Still, Norton and Bob Harper, the creator of StrataWatch.ca,believe that having a mandatory code of ethics for strata managers, as there is for engineers, optometrists, pharmacists and others, would go a long way.
Something else that would help? That would be for the real estate council to routinely accept complaints from individual owners, not just strata councils.
But as Davis points out: “It is the strata corporation as a whole that is the client of the strata manager, not the individual owners.”
One thing both sides agree on is that the real estate council is not responsible for enforcing the Strata Property Act, even though “that’s where all the complaints are,” according to Harper.
As Norton says, the real estate council “can turn a blind eye to strata managers’ ignoring the Strata Property Act.” And this is perhaps the biggest problem for condo owners. The act they live by is “self-administered,” or as Harper puts it, “nobody’s accountable.”
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