Official Condo Board Thread

[dirtsniffer]

I know there are a few other directors on this forum. Figured it would be good to have a thread to discuss challenges or contractors.

My Background.

4 years of board experience, mostly as treasurer. 94 unit townhouse complex. $300,000 yearly budget. Deep South location

[dirtsniffer]

What's everyone doing for the cannabis legalization? I have a few directors already wanting to ban it entirely. Personally, I would rather treat it like smoking - it's fine to use until it is a problem or a nuisance.

[cycosis]

Are you thinking this is an appropriate thread for contractors to make contacts / post available services? Would that conflict with beyonds advertising rules?

[dannie]

Super long story... But one of my other businesses is a condo management firm lol.

I'm happy to pitch in assistance with this thread. Just tag me in it if/when needed.

Cannabis is a issue that we are attempting to navigate for our clients. Unless your bylaws specifically state no smoking on the Complex property, it is going to be nearly impossible to police. We went on the nuisance clause with the lawyers and essentially the response was... If it's medical, they're untouchable.

So, long and short of it will be that you need to check your bylaws. Additionally, the condo act will be Changing and there may be a smoking clause, there may not be. We've not seen it yet.

[mzdspd]

I have been on our condo board for just one year.

Our board emailed our lawyer who has been drafting a new version of bylaws for us. In our bylaws, we have stated that residents are not allowed to have hydroponic plants.

Also, we have had a few residents ask if we can do a property wide cannabis wide ban similar to BoardWalk. However, our lawyer recommended that we should not do that because he said that his office foresees future lawsuits related to a cannabis wide ban. So we decided to treat it similar to smoking on property and common property.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I was on the board of my condo for a while until I moved out due to the 12th ave bike lane.

48 unit building downtown.

The things that annoyed me the most were:

1) An extremely unresponsive management company (we went through 3, all bad). Nobody, especially a condo management company, is so busy they can't send a 30 second email. If I ignored simple requests for weeks in my job I'd be fired. As a board we would constantly ask them do to stuff an they just ignore or reply with wildly incompetent emails. If we didn't want to use their crappy trades or if we wanted to get 3 quotes before approving a job they would have a tantrum.

2) Other board members being WAY too lenient when people break the rules (barking dogs, parking stall abuse, dumping garbage, etc.) We're all adults and if someone is actively choosing to break rules after their warnings, they shouldn't get any more leniency IMO. It took FOREVER to punish anyone and thus all complaints and issues went on for months unresolved. It was horrible. You could do whatever you wanted there because everyone got 100 chances and it took literal weeks every time to issue a single warning letter (of which at least 3 had to be sent before 'action' was taken - that action being a completely insignificant fine or more warnings).

3) As soon as a few busybodies are on the board, and can outvote the normal/reasonable/rational people, you might as well leave unless you have veto power.

As for cannabis I think it will just fall under the smoking bylaws. The big thing with smoking that differentiates it from drinking or other similar activities is it can effect so many people around you. You can smell that stuff (same with cigarettes) literally hundreds of feet away, and it can drift into people's open windows, etc. The smell can take hours to get rid of. I remember the building next to us, people were allowed to smoke on their balconies and I absolutely hated it - if I left my window open at the wrong time my place smelled like an ash tray courtesy of someone in an entirely different building.

[jdmXSI]

cool idea, I've been on our condo board for about 5 years now and been through a lot. Largest being a $4mm special assessment for the entire exterior envelope, landscaping and interiors... As for Cannabis legalization, nothing concrete however I personally want to see it treated as smoking cigarettes.

[speedog]

Boardwalk does not have a property wide cannabis ban, medical cannabis use is allowed on a case by case basis - know this first hand because one of my sons and his GF rent at a Boardwalk complex and she has a medical cannabis exemption with them already.

[timdog]

I own a small business that does Condo Document Reviews in Calgary - have been on multiple boards personally and have done many reviews of various buildings/complexes throughout the years, including a few in Canmore as well. Not seeing much being done about Cannabis yet in the bylaws but seeing the subject come up a lot in meeting minutes. General consensus seems to be to lump it in with Tobacco in the bylaws. The smell can create a nuisance but so can cooking certain foods - not sure how much can be done about it other than outright banning all smoking indoors (which still presents interesting enforcement challenges). And then people will just vape anyway.

[mzdspd]

Boardwalk does not have a property wide cannabis ban, medical cannabis use is allowed on a case by case basis - know this first hand because one of my sons and his GF rent at a Boardwalk complex and she has a medical cannabis exemption with them already.

They have property wide cannabis ban for non medical use.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/boardwalk-cannabis-rental-legalization-prohibit-1.4838498

[timdog]

I’ve talked to a couple lawyer friends and I think that’s going to be difficult to enforce and is not a ban that will stand over time. You can’t ban smells, what about people cooking cabbage? You can only enforce nuisances such as smells/sounds through warnings and fee schedules. Cannabis smell would fall under this in my opinion. Not to mention can you ban the use of edibles, vaporizers, etc? Obviously not. It’s the smell they are “banning” and frankly that’s not going to hold water when people start challenging it.

[cam_wmh]

What’s your guys thoughts on Emerald Property Management?

[dirtsniffer]

I agree. The city bylaw refers to it as a smell and that smells are apart of community living.


What’s your guys thoughts on Emerald Property Management?

No experience.

Generally, my experience has always come down to how good is the manager. Some suck. Some are great. I've never had issues with the other functions like accounting with any company

[gwill]

I'm on a few condo boards. What I've noticed is a big push for legal opinions by property managers to deal with the legalization of weed or non stop recommendations to update bylaws because of the legalization. IMO its way over blown.

People should be able to do what they want inside of the condo as long as it's not affecting other owners. Growing a plan or two in the condo isn't going to cause any issues. IMO someone smoking weed is as annoying as someone smoking a cigarette but to ban smoking completely is nearly impossible.

I've seen buildings burned down from cigarettes where the condo board couldn't get approval to ban smoking. I've had a small fire on the outside of one of my condos from a stupid cigarette. I just happened to be at the condo renovating it when it happened.

My biggest issue that I see right now are charge backs to idiot condo owners. If they cause a major flood they should be liable for it all but that's not always the case.

The new condo act has some good and bad changes in it as well.. the main issue is the insurance aspect when an owner causes a lot of damage a board WILL NOT be able to charge this back at all. To recoop the costs to the repair a condo board is forced to sue for damages adding a lot of time and costs to the board.

[dirtsniffer]

What? That's crazy. In my experience, the corporation has always charged the damage value back to a unit owner up to the cost of our deductible.

Our Corp has done this probably once a year. Having more difficulty reclaiming this is a big change.

Hopefully the courts are understanding and will include court costs in the settlements.

[gwill]

the new act is making it harder for boards to recoop. My one set of bylaws only allow us to collect up to whatever the deductible is on our insurance anything above must be paid by our board.

The new proposed act doesnt allow any charge back even if an owner is negligent. One of our lawyers drafted a letter for our board to distribute to owners that we could carpet bomb our mlas.

[dirtsniffer]

Anyone have experience investing portions of the reserve fund?

[msommers]

Has anyone been on a board that discussed doing exterior upgrades? Our building is ~30 units from the 80's, boring brick and tan coloured siding. Trying to figure out how expensive it would be to paint brick and replace vinyl with modern stucco (have seen a few in Marda Loop and the results are great). Our building got 'lucky' a couple years ago with hail damage as the entire roof and siding were both covered by insurance so that's one major thing that shouldn't need replacing in awhile.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Has anyone been on a board that discussed doing exterior upgrades? Our building is ~30 units from the 80's, boring brick and tan coloured siding. Trying to figure out how expensive it would be to paint brick and replace vinyl with modern stucco (have seen a few in Marda Loop and the results are great). Our building got 'lucky' a couple years ago with hail damage as the entire roof and siding were both covered by insurance so that's one major thing that shouldn't need replacing in awhile.

My old building is going forward with a massive envelope maintenance that before I moved out, we were getting quotes as high as $650K for (small 48 unit building built in 1999/2000). That was just for a stucco refurbishment, new paint, and some minor fixes (cracks, etc.) They haven't taken me off the board emails so I still follow along with everything haha. I know they did it fully as a special assessment. It was preventative too - didn't even need to be done.

I don't know what other materials there are but Stucco is VERY expensive even to repair/paint from what I have seen. I can't imagine what it costs to actually do the stucco.

My parents also just got their stucco painted on their house (1989 build) and while it was way more expensive than I would have imagined ($6500), it has a rubbery/plasticy texture to it (has a little give in it which probably helps with hail) and seems WAY more durable than their previous paint.

[dannie]

Anyone have experience investing portions of the reserve fund?

Most tend to do GIC's because they want the funds to be safe. Losing your resereve or even portions of it in a shaky market doesnt tend to go over well with most owners.


Has anyone been on a board that discussed doing exterior upgrades? Our building is ~30 units from the 80's, boring brick and tan coloured siding. Trying to figure out how expensive it would be to paint brick and replace vinyl with modern stucco (have seen a few in Marda Loop and the results are great). Our building got 'lucky' a couple years ago with hail damage as the entire roof and siding were both covered by insurance so that's one major thing that shouldn't need replacing in awhile.

We just did one for a 22 unit complex. The bill came in at $390k

[gwill]

you cant invest the reserve fund in the market. Your definitely strictly restricted in what you can invest in. Gics are all the options I've ever been given.

[dirtsniffer]

Ya for sure GICs. I was looking for an advisor as so I can stay 1 level removed.

[TomcoPDR]

WealthSimple full managed balanced funds?

[ExtraSlow]

WealthSimple full managed balanced funds?
You bastard

[dirtsniffer]

Ou hail deductible is going to 500k, I am not sure how to budget for that.. just assume special assessment?

[dannie]

Ou hail deductible is going to 500k, I am not sure how to budget for that.. just assume special assessment?

You really only have three choices. Raise fees and hope to have a little nugget of funds in case it happens, special assessment at the time or, do a combo. Raise fee and diligently put aside funds and also expect to special assess.

How large is your complex? 500k is pretty steep unless it's a massive building. Who's your insurer?

[dirtsniffer]

Its about 100 townhouses in 30 buildings. Got destroyed in the storm a month ago. Insurance is through gallagher. Our annual budget is about 300k, so setting aside 50k a year for the deductible is a 20% increase, we also had the premium go up 40k. People are going to lose their shit. Spending more on insurance than reserve contributions

[sabad66]

Can you shop different insurance companies? Gotta be someone out there who could beat that

[Jlude]

I have a condo in Winnipeg and after reading the meeting minutes form the last BOG meeting, it sounds like someone raised the issue of looking for a new property management company, but the property management company shot it down. Apparently it was also brought up a year ago, but nothing came of it. If the PM company can just shoot it down (like it seems by readying the minutes), how would a group of owners go about replacing the property management company? Wouldn't it just be a vote by the owners and it happens? Why is the PM company able to shoot it down?

[dirtsniffer]

We generally do 2 year terms as a board for our property manager. The board can easily transition to a new management company

[gwill]

Insurance will be a major issue. One of my rentals was technically outright denied insurance due to a few repairs that happened. Our property manager mentioned having to get some emergency extensions enacted under the fact covid was an emergency of sorts and that they couldn't outright cancel us outright during an emergency.

5 extensions later we finally had proper insurance.

Most condos can have 5 to 8 insurers under one policy. One may insure hail, one does fire. One may take sewage. In the last 12 to 18 months many insurers don't want to insure condos anymore and the ones who do are definitely more picky.

[gwill]

I have a condo in Winnipeg and after reading the meeting minutes form the last BOG meeting, it sounds like someone raised the issue of looking for a new property management company, but the property management company shot it down. Apparently it was also brought up a year ago, but nothing came of it. If the PM company can just shoot it down (like it seems by readying the minutes), how would a group of owners go about replacing the property management company? Wouldn't it just be a vote by the owners and it happens? Why is the PM company able to shoot it down?

the board can fire the property manager at anytime. If the board doesn't want to then the property manager will stick around. I'm going to assume the minutes are poorly drafted as any decision that happens for the condo community is up to the board not the property manager. Just because a resident or two are upset at the way things are run doesn't mean the condo board is.

Best way to fire the property manager is to get on the board.

[ExtraSlow]

If you own a condo you really should get on the condo board. Don't trust other idiots with that investment.

If you aren't willing to be on the board, you should rent.

[killramos]

Condos. For people who wake up one day and wish they had another level of government in their lives.

[Disoblige]

Condos. When you hate and want to punish yourself.

[dirtsniffer]

Talk about a fucking thankless responsibility that's for sure. Looking forward to unloading it next year.

[msommers]

We used BFL and they've been good to our condo building for claims. As with everyone out there, our annual has increased a lot over the last two years.

[Jlude]

I agree with everything mentioned above. Bought it 5 years ago, we lived there for about a year or so, but then moved to the US and haven't really been back. I'll never buy another condo.

[suntan]

My accountant lives in an apartment condo, some of the residents staged a sit in because they didn't like the way the parkade was being paved.

[dannie]

Its about 100 townhouses in 30 buildings. Got destroyed in the storm a month ago. Insurance is through gallagher. Our annual budget is about 300k, so setting aside 50k a year for the deductible is a 20% increase, we also had the premium go up 40k. People are going to lose their shit. Spending more on insurance than reserve contributions

There are a lot of people in the same boat. Gallagher is a bit pricey, but your management firm should be supplying the board with as many quotes as they can. Unfortunately, some will straight up refuse to quote because of the risk. You might be stuck with this for now.

- - - Updated - - -


I have a condo in Winnipeg and after reading the meeting minutes form the last BOG meeting, it sounds like someone raised the issue of looking for a new property management company, but the property management company shot it down. Apparently it was also brought up a year ago, but nothing came of it. If the PM company can just shoot it down (like it seems by readying the minutes), how would a group of owners go about replacing the property management company? Wouldn't it just be a vote by the owners and it happens? Why is the PM company able to shoot it down?

That's def not right. However, the management firm will have a contract with the condo corp. If you read it, there will be an escape clause in there. This document should be available to you as an owner. Some management companies have no escape clause and you're stuck for however long the contract is for. The owners cannot replace the management firm. This is a board decision, so i'd suggest trying to get elected and spearhead that initiative.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

I sure as heck would not want to own a condo again after the first time. I’m really glad I got out when I did for only $10k less than I paid and avoided any crazy high condo fees or special assessment.

[88CRX]

I will never own a condo ever again. Whoever said its like dealing with another level of government is bang on!

I only had tenant/neighbor issues and that was a big enough of a pain to never deal with that bullshit ever again.