Homeowner Protection Office

[Guest]

HOMEOWNER PROTECTION OFFICE

For the provincial government’s response to the leaky condo crisis, go to the Homeowner Protection Office (HPO) website at http://hop.bc.ca. Read past the government’s unabashed offer to sell its major repair guide to the victims of its no-accountability legislation. Managing Major Repairs: A Condominium Owner’s Manual is available free online at http://www.hpo.bc.ca/PublicationsForms/MMR/index.htm. It was put together by CMHC, HPO and B.C.’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and seems to be the most authoritative repair guide currently on offer. The fact that B.C. needs this kind of publication pretty much says it all, but there are other problems with the manual, too.

We find a disturbing inconsistency in Chapter 2 between the legal obligation of a strata council to repair all damage resulting from a building envelope failure and a condo owner’s obligation to fully report damage in a timely manner. At a certain point, the manual says, an owner may be personally liable as a result of inaccurate representation of his unit’s state of repair, but what is that point? We’ve been looking into this issue at the B.C. Superior Courts website. Please check our Condo Law FAQs forum for information, or click on search at any forum and type in the words, 'repair' or 'major repairs.'

HPO’s best site feature is the list of licensed building envelope renovators, whose licence applications, we’re told, are reviewed by an approved warranty provider (insurance company). Well, that’s something. Whether the licence is renewed each year depends on the contractor’s performance. This gives us some comfort. Read more about this list at Watchdog Forum.

We’re concerned, however, about the heads-up to strata councils on ‘corner-cutting’ practices by building tradesmen. Strata councils are invited to attend a seminar given by a TV personality to learn how to protect ourselves against these practices. Haven’t we got enough to do hiring engineers to diagnose defects and lawyers to make sure the contracts give us maximum protection? Shouldn’t policing the building trades be a matter for the provincial trade associations? Shouldn’t it mean something if someone accepts a building contract?

The important inference here is that B.C.’s building trades are not being policed, which is apparently OK with everyone in Victoria.

We are very pleased to see the advice to strata councils to get themselves a good lawyer, someone who practises in the area of construction litigation, who is familiar with condo legislation and who has experience in major repairs and warranty issues. We would add to this mix mediation experience. Owners facing major repairs are usually pretty conflicted. Of course, good advice isn’t cheap. Folks here say to think in terms of $300 or more an hour, but follow HPO’s helpful pdf link and make inquiries. You can also use the B.C. Superior Courts website for names. If you don’t think you need a lawyer, read through a few of the repair manual’s checklists to scare yourself, then think again.

What missing from this website:

What's missing from this site are the same things that are missing from CMHC's site:

* cost, time, materials and durability estimates for building envelope renovations. After 10 years of leaky condo fixes, it should't be this much of a crapshoot for condo owners.

* It would also be helpful if there were photo case studies akin to those at CMHC along with the list of licensed contractors. It's far too arduous for strata councils to go through and check the references at each listing. Pictures and numbers tell the story.

* There should be a public forum for written answers to frequently asked legal questions. The B.C. bar has been strangely silent about leaky condos despite the fact that more than than a few of those titles must have been transferred by lawyers. We would suggest a set-up similar to CMHC's discussion forum on highrises. (See our review of CMHC).

* HPO should be tracking building failures and fixes throughout the province, including fallout from a loophole in the Homeowner Protection Act that has allowed construction of single-family homes by unicensed builders. Go to http://www.hpo.bc.ca/PublicationsForms/OwnerBuilder/index.htm, Discussion Paper, Owner-Builder Exemption for the Construction of Detached Dwelling Units from November, 1999, which enlarges on Bob Maling’s report in Leaky Condos – 2000, published by the Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C. in February, 2000. That report stated that in 1999, almost 50 per cent of all new homes in B.C. were built by owners for their personal use. The danger of this type of construction is set out at p. 4.1.05 of the CLE text:

We believe that these figures confirm that many unscrupulous and unlicensed builders are using the exemption to avoid becoming licensed and providing home warranty insurance to back their work.

Our investigations confirm that many of these owner built homes are not intended for the personal use of the builder and are listed for sale before construction is complete. In addition, many of those same unlicensed builders are convincing owners to take out the permit as owner builders when what they are really doing is hiring an unlicensed builder to build their new home, and in doing so, foregoing the warranty insurance that they are entitled to.

Homes built by owner builders do not carry 2-5-10 home warranty insurance and if they sell their home within 10 years, the owner builder has a statutory liability to subsequent purchasers for any defects that may be discovered.

What are the stats like today, we wonder, and what new horrors will subsequent buyers discover within the next 10 years?

In general:

HPO’s site is quite an admission on the part of the government, if you think about it. It’s pretty clear that unless the average consumer has both law and engineering degrees plus experience as a building tradesman, s/he's probably not up to condo or owner-built home ownership in this province.

Restoring confidence, as the motto boldly asserts? No way. But we’ll continue monitoring this site. We’ll be interested to see what the new board of directors adds to the mix.

We would also be interested in HPO’s response, if any, to CMHC’s leaky condo re-sales article. Homeowner protection? Where?

[Guest]

Heavy criticism of HPO's licensing scheme

From: editor [mailto:editor@bccondos.ca]
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 4:11 PM
To: 'hpo@hpo.bc.ca'
Cc: 'editor@bccondos.ca'
Subject: Vancouver Condominium Services condemnation of April, 2003

Hello Homeowner Protection Office,

We came upon this item in Bulletin #39 from April, 2003 by Vancouver Condominium Service: http://www.vancondo.com/articles/Bulletins/Bulletin%2039.pdf. Scroll down to The Leaky Condo Saga Gets Worse. Any response?

Editor@bccondos.ca[/url]

[Guest]

We found the following item buried in the Fall, 2003 issue of HPO's newletter, BC Building: http://www.hpo.bc.ca/PublicationsForms/BuildingBC/Building%20BC%20Fall%202003.pdf. Scroll down to Update on Liability Insurance.

What we'd like to know is how many of the 65 licensed building envelope renovators listed and verified online Sept. 30 at http://www.hpo.bc.ca/Licensing/RenovatorList.html are actually able to take on the work. No word yet from HPO.

Ed.