Further to our article from last week, linked here, the issue of Strata Insurance premium and deductible increases has started to appear in the media. Here is an article and video from Global TV news, including information from the Condominium Home Owners Association on the subject.
We regret to be the ones to share this bad news if you are not already aware, so please try not to shoot the messenger. Strata Councils and their respective Ownership groups need to be aware that ALL Strata Corporations in and around the Lower Mainland (i.e. all of our clients) should expect to see very significant increases in the premiums they pay for insurance as well as deductibles. This is a difficult topic to distill into a few bullet points and we will attempt to flesh out the new reality below, but here are some high (or low) lights:
The 2019 Federal Election season is now in full swing. With that there are two common questions that often arise from Strata Councils during this period of sometimes fierce debate and partisan showmanship.
The British Columbia Law Institute published a report earlier this year that could have several significant impacts on Strata Corporations throughout the province. We have reviewed their report and tried to break out the most important recommendations they’ve made to the provincial government, which will likely result in at least some amendments to the Strata Property Act (the “SPA”). We recommend reviewing the report in depth, however below we’ve included below notes on some of the more important subjects of conversation.
You can review the whole report here: https://www.bcli.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Insurance-Issues-for-Stratas_Report.pdf
Some of the key recommendations they’ve made include:
Lesperance Mendes, whom we regularly link to on our blog, have 2 articles this month we think are worth referring.
Last year, we wrote to you regarding the planned increases to the minimum wage in British Columbia, and the impact these increased wages would have on Strata Corporations.
Our great friends at Lesperance Mendes have posted a new article on their Strata Alert section (a great source of information for Strata owners) regarding a recent BC Court of Appeal decision that clarified whether or not executive stay rental businesses are exempt from Strata Corporation rental restrictions.
With the popularity of electric vehicles increasing every month (reportedly, BC has the highest adoption rate in the country which is not a surprise to anyone who has driven in the downtown core recently), there is more and more pressure on Strata Corporations to allow for electric vehicle charging stations to be installed in their parkades. Many are amenable, but run into pragmatic problems such as:
In late 2018, the Government of BC released a report from their Rental Housing Task Force which included a number of recommendations designed to alleviate the housing crisis facing British Columbians.
With the ever-changing nature of global insurance markets and the unfortunate increase in severity and frequency of weather-related catastrophes ‘helping’ continue the trend of rising premium costs, the world of insurance is an ever more complicated and expensive one for strata councils to navigate. We take this opportunity early in the new year to pass along some general information to keep you and our clients informed on the renewal process along with some Market Insights from an industry expert to hopefully help make some more sense of this very significant and mandatory operating cost.