Condo Corporation documents requests – filled with games by boards and property managers – changes to the law seems to have no effect on boards and property managers. Part of 1 of a series

#condo #building #condolife #condoownerrights #condorights

January 1, 2020, four years ago the Alberta government implemented many new changes to the Alberta Condominium Act intended to assist owners. One of the changes desperately needed was a way for condo owners to be provided with the documents of their corporation so they can be aware of the events and issues in the building. Dictatorial boards and poor property managers have always hid documents from owners for many reasons. The changes to the legislation lays out very clearly that a property manager within 10 days of receipt of a request are legally required to provide the requested documents to the owners. It should be easy to receive documents – the legislation spells it out and it's been four years for them to learn the process. We are planning on testing how the changes to the legislation have improved the processes for condo owners.

I made a request to my board of directors and property management company (“PM”) to review certain corporate documents fifteen days ago. I thought how easy this should be, I won’t have jump through the same hoops with the PM because its now the law. It’s been 15 days since I sent the email request to the property manager. I have not received one document and the property manager falsely claimed that majority of the documents required board approval to receive which is the same old tired game. Here is a sample of the requested documents: Fire Safety Plan, property management services agreement, the special reserve plan, the annual report, and an engineer’s report. There aren’t extenuating circumstances or any reasons why the board and property manager can’t just email a copy of the Fire Safety Plan. How can the Fire Safety Plan be such a secret or confidential document that would require board approval for an owner to receive? What is even crazier is that not one member of the board jumped up and said why can’t we send the Fire Safety Plan; owners need to have a copy of the Fire Safety Plan don’t they? How can owners follow the safety plan if they don’t know what the plan is? The truth is, they can’t provide the Fire Safety plan because there isn’t one, it doesn’t exist despite it being a fire code violation and it's a similar situation with the reserve plans and annual report. “They” are attempting to hide their own gross negligence and now this becomes a much more difficult issue than just a document request. People are living in dangerous situations and there are little to no consequences for property managers or boards who fail to ensure the safety of the owners in the building.

Why would a board fail to provide owners a document that could save their life and why has the board and property manager not provided a fire safety plan to its owners? Boards hide behind property managers because they don’t know any better. They don’t understand their roles and responsibilities as board members, and they allow property managers to act as puppet masters in the building. All property managers are aware of the legislation and if they aren’t they should have their licenses revoked. They know that boards no longer have the authority to hold back documents from their owners, but they continue to play these games. An owner should receive free of charge any document that hasn’t already been provided to them. If you’ve misplaced the minutes for example then you can be charged $10.00 per item for the PM to send replacements. It’s really just intended to compensate the PMs time and not charge the corporation, now that all documents are electronic we all know how long it takes to attach documents but fair compensation should be provided to the PM if they are cooperating with the law.

When legislation is enacted you need an institution to ensure that legislation is being followed and enforced. The Real Estate council of Alberta ( RECA) is the regulator of property managers but clearly the property manager is not worried about repercussions or consequences of making false statements, and/or providing wrong information and looking deceitful. The property manager is not concerned about lying to the people who pay their salary because they aren’t afraid of breaking the law.

Prior to day ten I reached out to RECA to explain to them that I had requested documents and heard nothing, they provided me with the broker’s name and contact information. The broker is the individual who maintains the license for the company to operate. I went to the broker on Thursday which was day ten last week. I explained how concerning it is that a Fire Safety Plan is a confidential document and requires board approval. They ignored that comment and I was told by the broker, of course it’s somehow my fault, that the documents are available on a new portal the board has created. Except, another game, the only documents located on the portal are board minutes. The board minutes provide very little info and don’t even follow best practices. There are serious privacy concerns in the building. They have failed to follow the privacy act, there are no signs notifying owners and guests that there are surveillance cameras and no privacy policy. There are unethical and privacy violations already exhibited by the board. I will not be using a portal that has no terms of use and privacy policy and requires me to add a picture and other private information about my unit.

Here we are on day fifteen of the document request – waiting for the broker to provide the required documents –

Come along for the ride and lets see how hard or easy this is to obtain my own corporate documents …… and who is watching over the condo owners in Alberta!