Morley Hanson

Unit entitlement is the Act's own default, and complying with it is generally a safe answer to a cost-allocation complaint. A robust and resilient Strata Community keeps its cost allocation matched to who actually benefits, and revisits an old arrangement through a proper vote rather than a change in who controls Council.

An emergency that justified acting without authorization once should not become a standing excuse to act without it again. A robust and resilient Strata Community treats "it was necessary at the time" as a claim that has to be shown, not merely asserted.

A robust and resilient Strata Community resolves its own disputes through Council, its bylaws, and the more targeted remedies the Strata Property Act already provides. An administrator is what happens once none of that is working, not a substitute for making it work in the first place.

An Owner who receives a Strata's specific approval, and then actually acts on it, has a right that a court or the Tribunal must weigh, not something the Strata can withdraw for free. That reliance carries the most weight where the approval was an affirmative, specific representation and the Owner has gone beyond preparatory steps to real use or real expense.

A robust and resilient Strata Community depends on Owners being able to predict how a bylaw will actually be enforced against them, before it is enforced. Our recommendation is that Council document its reasons whenever it declines to enforce a bylaw against one Owner, not only when it decides to enforce it against another

Council has real authority to manage the common property, but that authority stops where a change becomes significant, and that line has been drawn by a fact-specific legal test the courts and the Civil Resolution Tribunal have applied consistently for years.

Choosing not to fine a bylaw complaint is not, on its own, significantly unfair, because the Act gives Council real discretion in how it enforces the bylaws. What the case law consistently punishes is not the choice itself, but a Strata that had enough information to make that choice and did not make it, whether through an unexplained refusal to reach a conclusion, an unwillingness to act on evidence it obtained itself, or no investigation at all.

A Strata's power to recover legal costs on a lien is broader than a court's ordinary costs award. It begins only when a Certificate of Lien is registered, it includes only costs that were reasonably necessary to register or enforce that lien, and it ends when the arrears are paid.

A fair process and a technically compliant formula do not, on their own, authorize charging an Owner for something they do not benefit from, reversing a cost arrangement Owners have relied on for years, or holding onto money the Strata was never entitled to in the first place.

An Owner does not lose their right to participate in democracy because they cannot attend a General Meeting. The power to appoint a proxy is important to proper governance of a Strata Corporation and a robust and resilient Strata Community.

The duty to accommodate is a fundamental aspect of strata governance under human rights law. It requires strata corporations to respond thoughtfully and flexibly to situations where bylaws or conditions create barriers for individuals with disabilities.

A Strata is a creature of statute and cannot perform an act that is something a person could do that is beyond its powers in the Strata Property Act.

The proper conduct of Annual General Meetings is critical to supporting a robust and resilient strata community. The Annual General Meeting is the opportunity for collective decision making and community building.

Stratas can manage parking effectively while reducing disputes and promoting the fair use of Common Property.

An Owner's request to alter a Strata Lot or the common property puts Council's discretion squarely in front of the significant-unfairness standard, whether or not a Bylaw expressly limits that discretion.

once a repair has become genuinely necessary, deferring it stops being a practical option, and continuing to defer it can cross from an ordinary delay into an oppressive breach of the Strata's own duty, with real financial consequences. A robust and resilient Strata Community moves from investigation to action once a repair is actually needed, rather than treating "eventually" as a substitute for a plan.

The Strata Property Act does not give Council a general discretion to spend the Strata's money on what it judges to be a good idea. Every expenditure must be authorized — a budget line, a Contingency Reserve Fund vote at the level the expenditure requires, or one of the narrow unapproved-expenditure exceptions

A Strata is entitled to use its judgment about whether and how to enforce a bylaw, and it is not expected to be perfect. However, that judgment must keep moving toward a decision; it cannot be exercised once and then abandoned while the same complaint continues to come in.

Unit entitlement is the Act's default, and complying with it is generally a safe answer to a cost-allocation complaint as significantly unfair. The Act provides tools, through either sectioning or a types bylaw, to apportion common expenses in a manner that is fair to all Owners.

Implied waiver does not require a Strata Corporation to intend anything. It can arise from the three-element test, when the Strata Corporation puts its own state of mind in issue, has obtained legal advice, and voluntarily injects that advice into a dispute to justify what it did.