The Alberta government has made changes to the law, I believe it was the NDP who worked to implement a lot of the useful changes to the Condominium Property Act ("CPA") effective January 1, 2020, with the intention of assisting owners navigate Condo life. In the last couple of weeks I have heard of many more owners trying to contact their Property Managers ("PM") and boards to receive copies of their documents and failed. They have been ignored, told the board has to approve the request, which is one of my favorite excuses, one owner received parts of the agreement a couple pages of the agreement and was told only the board is privy to the entire agreement. That one makes me laugh out loud and scream at the top of my lungs all at the same time, how ridiculous it is...owners are not allowed to know what services the PM is supposed to provide to them when they are paying their salary?! I mean, come on..... When the law changes people and corporations have to change with it. Every owner has a right to receive almost all documents of the corporation they have their name on them and the government told us the board is required to provide those documents within 10 days. That's it that's all there is folks so why are we still fighting the same fight?
At the COF meeting last night this same subject came up, not the first time but darn it, it needs to be the last! Over and over again every person in attendance said the same thing... the documents belong to you, the government told owners they can have the documents but the boards and PMs are not providing and not following the law. There was a great suggestion from a long time member of COF who said I would send a statement along with my email request after they deny it stating, "you are legally required to provide me with these documents within 10 days. I do not want to have to file a claim and sue you but I will and not only will I sue the corporation, I will sue you all personally as you are violating the act". I doubt there is a court anywhere that would not reward the owner judgment and costs because the PM and board should be penalized for wasting the courts time with such frivolous nonsense by refusing to provide owners documents in accordance with the law. It seems harsh but it is effective and clearly warranted in this industry where a small group of people can commandeer a board of directors and control every aspect of it.
I don't want to start lecturing about autocratic and dictatorial boards but this is a great test for all owners if they aren't sure what is happening with their board. Send a request to review the property management agreement and wait for the response. Want to determine or define your board in 3 easy steps just send a document request, you will find out really quickly how your board and PM operates and if they believe in the rule of law or if they make their own rules. At this point I've heard that RECA is so backed up with this type of request they can't possibly assist all owner so we have to fight for ourselves and when enough people fight back they will be forced to adapt to democracy and respect for other owners in the building.
It's pretty simple really, when the law changes corporations are required to adopt the changes. It doesn't happen very often but it does happen and it seems shocking that so few understand the concept. Have these people never worked anywhere where they had human resources, safety plans, OSFI change policy? When the government makes changes to employment standards human resources departments everywhere have to review the changes and update their policies to reflect the law. When governments changed the statutory holidays to include Family Day or the Truth and Reconciliation day for example, they set the minimum requirements and corporations are legally required to pay employees for nine stat holidays a year, which is the minimum. They couldn't ignore Family day and pretend it didn't change or make up excuses as to why people can't take the day off and get paid. They can't not pay you if you take the day off. All Alberta corporations were required to update their policies and start paying Albertans for Family day because its the law. This is the same thing that has occurred with the CPA. The government has enacted changes, the bare minimum requirements for condo building with the new bylaws and every condo corporation must update their bylaws in accordance with the CPA and regulations and start following them.
Send an email and ask for the property management agreement and let us know how it goes! Good Luck to all condo owners and talk to at least one neighbor in your elevator today, say something positive and enjoy a laugh together
and remember you are a community!
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