As of January 1, 2020, the Alberta government made some pretty interesting improvements to the Condominium Property Act in order to assist owners with some of the more troublesome issues. It's been four years since the changes were introduced and I wanted to test the system to see if boards and property managers were following the law and providing documents as requested to owners in accordance with the Act. This is our second blog about this issues because I haven't received the documents yet.
Lets include the Act so it's clear for anyone reading:
Information and documents on request:
44(1) On the written request of an owner, purchaser or mortgagee or the solicitor of an owner, purchaser or mortgagee, or a person authorized in writing by any of those persons, the corporation shall, within 10 days after receiving the request, provide to the person making the request any prescribed information or documents as requested by that person.
(2) The corporation may provide any prescribed information or documents requested under subsection;
(1) in electronic form unless the person requesting the information or documents specifically requests that they be provided in paper form.
The Act is really very simple and should not be a source of contention for an owner or board member to understand. An owner makes a request to the board to review documents that have their name on them regarding issues in a building they are an owner in and they should receive the documents within 10 days. It's really a cut and paste job for most property management companies. They have agreements or receive reports, and all they have to do is attach them to an email so why don't they? Why do they fight so hard to keep documents from owners? Why do boards and property managers keep information and hide information from their owners?
It's actually disturbing when you think about an owner wanting to maintain their investment and are blocked at every turn a bad board of directors that completely misunderstands their role and obligations as a board member lock owners out of their own corporation and refuse to provide information about a building you own. Seven people who are often not even legitimate control a building so it's owners can't learn why they were required to pay a special assessment or pay for an engineer's report that they won't let you read yourself. Grown adults who can figure out how to buy the condo and move in....and pay monthly condo fees can figure out how to manage all of those tasks but yet the board thinks they have a right to "allow" owner to read an engineer's report about their own building that they paid for. How can this be happening in this Canadian city.
Yesterday, I went back and provided my list to the property manager with the 12 documents that belong to me as an owner that I have every legal right to review and we will update this blog next week as to if I receive the required documents.
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