Pat Carson likes the view from her rental apartment, it feels like home.
Several years ago, Pat owned a condo, but found the experience anything but neighbourly.
"It was such a bad experience I vowed I'd never live in a condo again," she said, pointing a finger at the strata council in her building.
"I guess I saw them throwing away all this money and I wondered how much is going into their pockets," she said.
Strata developments make up 25 per cent of all real estate in B.C. In many communities, like Vancouver, it's more like 50 per cent of the available real estate.
But before you buy, there are some finer points of strata living you'll need to keep in mind.
Tony Gioventu of the B.C. Condominium Owners Association says the most common conflicts surround the six "Ps" of strata living: Pets, people, parking, pools, prostitution, and pot.
Gioventu says Pat's fear about strata councils squirreling away people's money is often well founded.
"People who live on strata council think they've served on council so they shouldn't have to pay their strata fees," he said. "People have a home depot card for the strata and basically remodel their home at the expense of the strata corporation."
But that's pocket change compared to the money problem looming for most strata owners.
Gioventu believes more than 98 per cent of all strata councils don't have enough money in contingency funds to deal with all future repairs.
"I attended a building last week where they are 25 years old, there are 181 units, they have $31,000 in their contingency fund and they are facing probably a $1.2-million roof."
There are two solutions -- a mandatory minimum funding level legislated by the provincial government. Or a long term reserve plan. Without that...
"There is no magic funding for this program. It comes out of your pocket," he said.
Deferring repairs or doing patchwork jobs are often the result of stratas not having enough in their contingency fund. That only costs you more in the long run.
"The people who are deferring the repairs when they knew in 2001 they had an engineering report that they should have done a repair and back then they could have spent $30,000 a unit to repair it are now facing $150,000 to $200,000 to repair them," he said.
As Pat learned from experience: "Make sure there is lots of money in the reserve fund because you're going to need it," she said.
- Tip: Before buying a strata, ask for a copy of something called "Form B." It doesn't sound like much but it will tell you vital information that may affect your decision to buy, such as fees, legal action, and bylaw changes.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen
