Leaky Condos
 

i'm debating about upgrading to a townhouse or a house in the next while, and i know that a majority of condos built in the 80s and 90s had problems with leaking, does anyone know if this was mainly limited to condos, or is this a common problem in townhouses/houses built around that same era?

It's more or less the construction practices during those years. You'll find problems with both condos and townhomes. It really depends on who the contractor and developer were.

Even if it was leaky before, if the repairs have been done properly and is warrantied it shouldn't be a problem. The condo I live in now was leaky before I bought it. All the work was done before I bought it and is warrantied.

how about condos/townhomes vs. houses?

Well, if you want the value of your home to keep its value, then you have to make sure that you take responsibility in maintaining your property at the appropriate times.

The only difference is...condos/townhouses TELL you when its time to replace the roof, maintain the balconies..etc, etc.


As much as construction practices are a factor...i still have to slightly disagree, and this is what I tell all my clients who think that ALL Bosa, Cressey, and any big name developers make sound construction buildings.

Heres a question you may want to answer in perspective:

If you have two buildings side by side, built by the same construction company, built at the same time and identical in every single way....which building will last longer??

The answer is the building that has owners that proactively take care of the building.

All buildings are built with a minimal code (now even a better code if built after 2001). If the owners of the building never attend the meetings, never take action on maintaining the building, etc...it will definitely have problems. On the other side, you have strata corporations where they take great interest in every aspect of the building and they put funds together for proactive maintenance will not be likely to see the same problems.

I live in a building that was built in 1976 and after 30+ years of existence, there hasn't been a single problem....pretty impressive for a building that old. Yet, a client and I had placed an offer on building that was 2006 built....and i was able to identify rainscreen problems, engineers report issues, etc. After 5 years?? Even with a building with most of its warranties...its still subject to problems.

If you want to pinpoint an era where you will find a lot of leaky condos, i will say its buildings built between 1992-1997. However, that doesn't mean that they are all bad....please refer to the reasoning above. If you ask me, a lot of condos built in the 80s are really well built....well maintained? Different stoy...


Your agent will be able to guide you on how to avoid the leaky issue. If you don't have one...im sure you will find at least one on your facebook friends list. Im sure if you have a friend as an agent, he/she'll do whatever it takes to make sure you don't get screwed over.

The cache with going with a big name developer these days is losing its meaning. With the amount of new stratas out there with atrocious build quality of which one can see, just imagine the kind of latent defects are hidden to potential buyers/owners that are not so visible.

It's not just construction quality as much as it is architectural design (ie: roof overhangs). A well built but poorly designed building won't survive long in our wet weather climate. I wouldn't say water ingress issues are mainly isolated to stratas as I've seen the newer style homes (~10yrs) with moisture issues - those first generation Vancouver Specials with the coloured stucco and tile roof.

When buying a strata, a general starting point would be to see how the exterior of the building looks (ie: is there any moss growing? glass dirty? water stains?) and take note of their design. It's usually a good indication of what to expect to see once you're inside.

load up on your insurance, make sure you max it you when it comes to strata deductible or assessment. Request Strata times, it shows the previous upgrades or claims. New condos are worst than old ones, same goes for house.

If you buy into a older condo that has already upgraded ur good