strata duties
 

Can anyone explain the duties of strata members and what each position is required to do? President, vice president, treasurer, secretary, at large etc etc?
I know the treasurer is mainly finance related, but what about the other positions? what do they actually do?

Thanks!

I'm sure it varies between different places. It all comes down to the nature of the strata that you're involved with.

For some of the ones that I've seen, other than the treasurer, the title is pretty much just that -- a title. Anyone will take on stuff as they come up, and they are just a collective group of people / volunteers that offer up their own time to look after the building and deal with issues.

In other cases, there is a more defined chain of command. The secretary takes care of all the paperwork. The President call the shots. A dedicated person only deals with key fobs, etc.

No disrespect, but this information is easily found on Google:

https://www.fsresidential.com/britis...strata-council

It helps if you know a little bit about construction industry as 90% of matters regard upkeep, maintenance, prevention, etc.

Thank you and no disrespect taken at all. I wasn't searching with the right key words or I guess I was flat out oblivious to some of the results that popped up.


To be fair though, probably a good 90%+ of all questions ever asked on here can also be found on Google though through reviews and recommendations. :P

Oh totally. And the more questions people ask here, the more reason to keep coming back and reading. I hesitated before posting my reply just for that reason.

The other 10% is PIA issues like one neighbour thinks another neighbour is too loud, enforcing parking bylaws, making sure no one is renting out their unit as AirBnB, budgeting for monthly maintenance and reserve fund, etc.

I must say, kudos to strata council volunteers, lot of work, always the first to receive complaints, and hardly or no appreciation.

good info thread.

anyone here a strata expert?

i'm in strata where the owner of the prop management company owns 5 units in a complex of 300 units. he treats it as his own. he's no longer on council but is very involved in council matters as he reads all council emails etc. how to go about reducing his involvement? any action i can take with Richmond RE board? His property mgmt company is in richmond

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I was on my strata council for a few yrs.
Owners can request to attend strata council meetings but may have to leave during votes and during discussions regarding other owners (complaints, issues, etc). Non-council members can't vote.

Huh? I'm not understanding this. If he is no longer on the strata council, why is he reading council emails? If the matter requires action from the property management company, you get him involved through the property management company. If it doesn't, then he has no business sticking his nose into it.

If he is not on the strata council, and those who are elected to be in council do not like him being there, the strata should just politely thank him for his willingness to help, but also firmly tell him his help is not needed at the moment.

i dont want to hijack this thread with specific issues unless others will find it beneficial.

so if there are any strata experts or i'm willing to pm.
unless all are ok with me thread jacking for some collective learning :D

Also a Strata member here and to add to to this a person must request in advance to attend the meeting, one can't just simply show up. As well they are not permitted to talk during the meeting but may ask a question if they get approved to do so during the meeting but the council is also in the right to say no.

I'm also not understanding how this person is reading emails? Someone get him off the DL? am i missing something here?

It sounds like he is the owner of the property management company the strata has retained, so he gets to see all the emails and the strata business, even though he's not sitting on the council.

Is the owner also the designated property manager? Or is one of his employees?

In either case, the having the owner of the property management company also a owner of a strata unit (or 5 in this case) seems like a huge conflict. Is there some kind of special deal in place between the property management company and the strata?

Thats exactly the case.

He is the owner of Prop Mgmt company.
He owns 5 / 330 units.

He has one of his employees as the designated property manager.

Interestingly he says there is no conflict that he is the owner of the mgmt company and he also owns 5 units. He used to be president of the council too he has stepped down but he is still very much invovled. Recently he contacted a trades guy to fix a door problem. He emailed the council to get the ok though.

What kind of special deal between strata and prop mgtmt co?

Worst comes to worst strata can just vote to use a new company when the contact is over whenever that may be.

Please do

Anything you ask is probably something I'd be wondering about or end up asking in the future.

Personally, I think it's a conflict.

A strata council is supposed to represent the collective interests of all owners. They are not supposed to give preference to one owner over another.

The property management company is hired by the strata council to help them with managing the building and running the council. The property management company should be a neutral 3rd party.

For example, let's say the owner of the property management company is named Fred (just making it up).

Now for example the strata council has to make a decision that would impact a unit(s) owned by Fred. Fred, or Fred's employee, could give information to the council that could sway them one way or another, depending on Fred's personal preference.

If the council doesn't see this as a conflict, then I suspect there is some kind of deal going on. Say, the council agrees to give the property management contract to Fred's company. In return, Fred gives the council a discount on his contract. It's in Fred's best interest to give a discount because he can then play both sides (strata and owner) with respect to his 5 units. There's also lots of opportunity for Fred to do side-deals between contractors and the council, knowing he has special access to the council when it comes to hiring outside contractors and trades.

A colleague of mine lived in a townhouse / condo where the strata was made up of an entire family, who happened to also own a series of companies that specialized in property management, who also just happens to also run landscaping / electrical, and security company too!

Needless to say, it raised a lot of eye brows, but the fees were competitive, and they did a great job maintaining the property. Nobody complained. The market couldn't compete.

whats your role in your strata?

In my case "Fred" works really hard to obtain proxies from owners. He collects at least 40 proxies each AGM and distributes it to his friends on council. These "friends" basically listen and vote as Fred directs. It's difficult to remove Fred / His company. Someone tried and it had to go through a SGM , which they didn't hold. Fred would work 2x as hard since Fred gets advance notice there will be a special vote to remove Fred's company.

No role at all I'm just curious who does what and what their responsibilities are.

That's pretty much the definition of a conflict right there.

The Real Estate Council has a page that talks about this.

https://www.recbc.ca/psm/conflicts-o...ment-services/

You should contact them, i'd be interested to hear what they suggest. It's possible you could file a complaint against Fred through the RECBC, which would force him to leave the contract.

Off topic to OP, but related to strata:

Building recently had windows cleaned, but my ground level unit was skipped entirely, with the building manager citing that only windows that can't be reached by residents will be cleaned. I can easily clean my own accessible windows, but the biggest window in my unit has no direct access, and requires either me to hop the patio railing, or walking through/around greenery. Is this worth arguing with strata over, or just STFU and DIY? No major issue as I am able bodied, but just thinking about this liability-wise.

It is strata's responsibility to clean exterior window. If you do clean exterior windows (maintain common area) and get injured, it will be an insurance shitstorm