Buyer & Seller whose English is 2nd language should pay extra attention when buying & selling strata unit?
Both the buyer & seller should understand that the brokerages providing agency services to the buyer and seller do not provide legal or other expert advice in matters beyong the common standard of care in the real estate industry. The parties have been advised to seek independent legal advice prior to executing this contract of purchase and sale.
The buyer needs to understand the significance of the strata documents presented & is aware of the risks associated with not carefully reviewing the materials himself/herself. The strata minutes will inform the buyer about more than the property; it also gives the buyer important information about the strata community. The buyer should obtain professional advice if the documents raise questions of a technical nature.
The buyer understands that the licensee does not take exclusive responsibility for reviewing the strata minutes. The buyer's agent will accurately pass on the relevant information in the minutes, but there is no general duty requiring the licensee to go behind the minutes to investigate matters reported in the minutes. The buyer accepts full responsibility for reading & reviewing the minutes independently.
Common items buyers are interested as follow:
If you are an investor, you need to know if the building has rental restriction. Has the strata meetings mentions about voting for amending the rental restriction by-law?
If you have pets, how many allows and what is the restriction (if any)?
If the unit already has wood floor installed and you know it was not installed by the developer, you need to find out if you need a letter of approval from the strata council or property management. If you don't have one and it requires one, strata council & property manager has the right to ask you to remove it.
When buyer receive all the strata meeting minutes, if it is too much for the buyer to read. Buyer should hire the lawyer to read it through for u for extra couple hundred dollars. When it comes to technical document like the engineering report, I'd strongly recommend the buyer to give the report to the inspector, let them read it and see if they find anything needs extra attention. All Caucasian inspectors are willing to do that.
As an owner of the property. The common mistake is most owners do not attend the meetings nor read the meeting minutes when they come through the mail every month. They usually put it aside until the property management asks them for a cheque to pay for any special levy. Sometimes, the seller might not even know why they pay the special levy & what the payment is for.
Once you become a strata owner, please make sure you buy a 3 inches binder, put all the doc such as by-law, engineering report & collect min. 2 yrs minutes at a time in case u are going to sell the property in 2 yrs.
If you have further question, pls don't hesitate to contact me at 604-412-5860 or tinamak@tinamak.com
