Condo News
As It
Happens—CBC Radio
21 March 2012
A woman in New Hampshire is being sued by her condo board because she
refuses to rip out the flower garden in front of her unit and plant
bushes like every other unit.
She was given permission by the developer to plant her garden. Now the
condo has a new board.
So far the daily $60 fines plus lawyer fees that the board wants run up
to $12,000. She has offered $3000 but the board refused it.
So the woman will sell her unit and buy a home that is not controlled
by a five-member condo board because she does not want to live under
"the power they think they have".
—†—
Condo
fiasco
CBC Radio Edmonton
15 December 2011
Condo-owners in an Edmonton 20 story high-rise are astounded after
workers walked off the job during major renovations.
The 30-year-old condo hired a contractor to do major renovations to
their building envelope. This was an $8 million project.
The work was started and the balcony railings and windows were removed.
Then, quite unexpectedly, the workers walked off the job.
What happened next was a pile of liens and lawsuits.
Alberta
condo construction woes flagged 3 years ago
Government offers sympathy but no action on condo construction mess
Charles Rusnell CBC News
Posted: Feb 24, 2012
A government committee identified problems with Alberta’s residential
construction practices and lax inspection regime three years ago, but
critics say the committee’s recommendations have never been acted on.
In the last three years alone, hundreds of Albertans have been forced
out of their condominium complexes because they were too unsafe to
inhabit. Thousands of other Alberta condo owners have had to spend tens
of millions of dollars to repair crumbling buildings, many less than a
decade old.
Last year, about 300 residents of the Penhorwood complex were ordered
to leave in the middle of the night because officials feared the nearly
new building would collapse. Last year, they voted to borrow $35
million to rebuild the entire condo project.
(How would you like to have to take out a loan for $35 million to
rebuild your condo complex? I imagine their having to continue to pay
their mortgages as well.)
Earlier this week, about 150 residents of the Bellavera Green Condos in
Leduc were given an eviction order because of serious fire-code issues.
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Throw-away
buildings: Toronto's glass condos
CBC
News
14 Nov
2011
Many of
the glass condominium towers filling up the Toronto skyline will fail
15 to 25 years after they’re built, perhaps even earlier, and will need
retrofits costing millions of dollars, say some industry experts.
Buyers
drawn to glass-walled condos because of the price and spectacular views
may soon find themselves grappling with major problems including:
* Insulation failures.
* Water leaks.
* Skyrocketing energy and maintenance costs.
* Declining resale potential.
Glass
condominiums — known in the industry as window walls — have
floor-to-ceiling glass, so essentially the window becomes the wall.
Window walls generally span from the top of the concrete slab right to
the bottom.
One
developer calls glass-walled condos “throw-away buildings” because of
their short lifespan relative to buildings with walls made of concrete
or brick.
“We
believe that somewhere between, say, five and 15 [years], many, many of
those units will fail,” said David House of Earth Development, which
bills itself as a socially responsible property developer.
Read more
at: Toronto's
glass-wall condos
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Condo
nightmare: buyer beware of leaky, rotten condos
The Vancouver Courier
By Deb Abbey
22 September 2011
If you’re buying a condo, you might think there’s a government agency,
regulatory body or some mechanism out there to ensure you’re protected
from shoddy workmanship, poor design or lack of maintenance. Or at the
very least that the market knows about and prices these substandard
condo developments accordingly.
Think again. In my last column, I talked about Fred and Ethyl, a couple
who thought they’d done all the right things and still ended up with a
$100,000 assessment within months of buying their condo [their share of
the cost to rainscreen their leaky condo development].
How can you avoid being caught in a financial pickle like this?
Start with the basics. Make an informed decision. If you make a bad
decision, there’s no easy way to recoup your losses. In fact, some
court decisions have found “against” the buyer for not doing adequate
research.
In my experience, some strata councils (condo boards) are reluctant to
put anything on the record that could potentially have an impact on the
current valuation of the property. While this is shortsighted
management, it’s becoming the norm in a lot of developments where
everyone has a vested interest in keeping property values as high as
possible.
—†—
Check
for shoddy construction first, condo buyers told
CBC Calgary News
Posted: Jun 29, 2011
Experts say when it comes to buying condos or new houses in Calgary, do
your homework first.
"I've seen a lot of examples of the workmanship that's coming out and
it's quite horrific what's happening to a lot of these people," said
realtor Mike Libel.
Condo owners in Bankview are facing a large repair bill after it was
discovered that their nine-year-old building is leaking.
An inspection at the Bella Vista Condominiums on 14A Street turned up
building code violations. Owners are on the hook for between $77,000
and $189,000 each to pay for repairs to the roof, eaves, balcony and
parkade.
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