Tony Gioventu
Province
Dear Condo Smarts: Can you please tell us what information is supposed to be included with the Form B information certificate? We received the Form B three days after we removed the subjects for the purchase of a townhouse.
Our sale is completing the first week of August and the rules that were attached with the form indicate that pets are prohibited.
We have two very dear dogs that we cannot part with. We read all the minutes and the bylaws and there was no such restriction.
Do we attempt to cancel the sale or is there some other remedy ? Could the strata corporation grandfather our pets?
Dear Jeffersons and all buyers: A Form B information certificate is simply a disclosure of information about a strata corporation for a specific date in history.
Many buyers falsely believe the form is valid for 30 or 60 days.
Financial status, rules, rentals, strata fees, court actions and municipal notices can all change within a day, so don’t rely on a Form B beyond the date it was issued.
Rules must be included with a Form B because they are not filed in the Land Title Registry. However, rules cannot apply to the use of a strata lot, and a rule that prohibits or restricts pets must be a properly ratified and registered bylaw to be enforceable.
The purpose of the Form B is strata-corporation disclosure of information about the strata business and its rules and bylaws. The form includes the amount of your strata fee; if there are agreements between the strata lot and the strata where you could be taking responsibility for the maintenance and repair of permitted alterations; approved special levies; projected deficits; contingency-reserve amounts; bylaw amendments or threequarter votes yet to be filed in the Land Title Registry; court proceedings; pending notified three-quarter resolutions; the number of units rented; and work orders issued by an authority.
Receiving the Form B after you close the sale is of little benefit to a buyer since considering the information in the form, the strata minutes, bylaws and financial reports would all be critical before you make the decision to buy.
Regarding your pets, the strata corporation needs to be advised their rule prohibiting pets is not permitted or enforceable under the Act.
Tony Gioventu is the executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association (CHOA). Contact CHOA at 604584-2462 or call toll-free at 1-877-353-2462,or fax 604-5159643, or go to www.choa.bc.ca, or email [email protected]
© The Vancouver Province 2007
