Tony Gioventu
Province
Dear Condo Smarts:
Our townhouse complex has been plagued with grow-ops over the past five years. It seems every few months, we have another visit from the drug squad and another unit is busted.
Two units have been busted more than once. There are constant legal costs being paid by the strata owners, routine damage to common property and the neighbouring units have had their homes and personal property affected.
The police have always been very co-operative, but we’re at the point we can’t pay the costs any longer and we’re, quite frankly, tired of being an easy target for grow-ops.
How have other strata corporations solved this problem?
— Mrs. D. Warren, Richmond
Dear Mrs. Warren:
There are several parts to a solution for grow-ops and meth labs. The first is to have enforceable bylaws that address common area damages and related costs, including legal costs for enforcement.
The second is to have a good working relationship with your local government. Most municipal bylaws make a provision to name the strata corporation in an order for repairs where there is a grow-op identified.
It is critical that the order include the legal name of your strata, for example, “the owners, strata plan ABC 1234.”
By including your legal name, this order empowers the strata corporation to effectively meet the obligations of the repairs in the order and then under the Strata Property Act, to file a lien for those related costs of the order against the offending unit. This takes priority over other charges like bank mortgages and makes the owner of the offending lot pay the bills.
Your strata council must actively enforce your bylaws. Routine inspections of every strata lot for operation and maintenance requirements make it inconvenient for growers to set up operations.
If an owner fails to comply with inspections, enforce the bylaws requiring access for inspections. This may also include proceeding with a court order to enforce the bylaws and gain access to the suites.
Simply put, enforce the bylaws and act quickly. If the operation is a meth lab, the contamination may result in uninhabitable situation for many other units as well.
For those strata corporations with no history of grow-ops as of yet, there are also some insurance options. While the deductible may often be $50,000 or greater, consider that grow-op or meth-lab damages can easily exceed $250,000.
Tony Gioventu is the executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association (CHOA). Contact CHOA at 604-584-2462 or toll-free 1-877-353-2462, go to www.choa.bc.ca, fax 604-515-9643, email [email protected]
© The Vancouver Province 2007
