What is a form K?
Living in a Strata Corporation can be complicated, you own the home but unlike individual houses there are additional rules and bylaws residents must abide by. All Strata Corporations have “rules and bylaws” which are created by the ownership voting and approval at General Meetings. All residents including tenants living in Strata Corporations are required to follow the rules and bylaws. How do tenants know what the rules and bylaws are to ensure they are in compliance?
Strata Corporations are governed by legislation in British Columbia called the Strata Property Act. Section 146 of the act explains the requirement for landlords to provide tenants a copy of the rules and bylaws “before the tenant rents the property”. A “Form K” also known as “Notice of Tenant Responsibilities” must be signed by the landlord and the tenant before the start of the tenancy. The Strata Property Act also requires owners to provide a copy of the signed form K to the Strata Corporation within two weeks of renting the property. Many Strata Corporations have added bylaws making it a requirement that Landlords provide the signed form k as outlined in section 146, which provides Strata Corporations the ability to take actions including applying fines if a form K is not provided.
It is important to understand that having tenants sign the form K and sending it to the Strata Corporation isn’t all that is required. A form k is an acknowledgement by the landlord that they provided a current copy of the rules and bylaws to the tenant. When tenants sign the form K Landlord’s should provide current copies of the rules and bylaws, explain to the tenant why they are signing this form, as they are required to comply with the rules and bylaws and should read the documents provided to them. Another overlooked aspect is rules and bylaws often change during a tenancy. The Strata Property regulations standard form K identifies the need for tenants to comply with the “changed” rules and bylaws. During a tenancy, tenants may not be aware of changes to rules and bylaws unless the Landlord provides them with updates. A majority of tenants are not informed of communication in the Strata Corporation as the Strata Corporation will convey information to the home owners. It is the homeowner or Landlord's responsibility to communicate information to the tenants. After each general meeting Landlords should review minutes of the meeting to review changes made to the rules and bylaws. If they are changed or new ones added, Landlords have the obligation to provide the changed rules and bylaws to their tenants. When changes have occurred Landlords should have tenants sign a document identifying they have received the new or changed rules and bylaws.
Properly completing the “Notice of Tenant's Responsibilities” protects both the landlord and the tenant by clearly explaining the expectations of both parties during the tenancy.
Need assistance managing your rental property? contact us for an evaluation of your needs.
Cartref Properties specializes in managing rental units located within Strata Corporations.
www.cartrefproperties.com
Rental Application fees
Searching for a tenant takes time and effort to find the right people for your property.
First you must advertise your property and show it to prospective applicants. Prospects will submit an application and Landlords will need to check references, perform credit checks and determine if the applicant is suitable for the property. All of this work takes time, and some Landlords want to charge a fee for this time.
Part two section 15 of the Residential Tenancy Act in BC prohibits Landlords from requiring a deposit or charging a fee for accepting or processing the rental application, investigating an applicant's suitability or accepting the tenant. What this means is a Landlord is not entitled to be directly compensated for these efforts. Rent for the property will need to cover these anticipated costs for Landlords. I have seen some Landlords state the fee will be added to the rent or deposit when the tenancy is accepted, this is inappropriate and not in accordance with the Residential Tenancy Act.
Asking a potential tenant to provide an amount of money could deter quality tenants from applying because they are informed of the law. Landlords could find themselves in a Residential Tenancy Board hearing if an applicant submitted their application fee, then wasn’t selected to rent the unit.
Being a Landlord is equivalent to owning a business. If you owned a retail store, restaurant or other business and required potential employees to pay a fee for submitting their application you would limit your choice significantly. Quality employees would look elsewhere and your business wouldn’t perform as you would expect. Requesting a fee for the application to rent would provide the same results, and a tenancy that wasn’t what you expected.
Landlords should take the appropriate time to thoroughly investigate each applicant's suitability for renting their property, in a manner which is in accordance with the Residential Tenancy Act. Failure to adhere to Tenancy Laws in BC often creates issues between Landlords and Tenants.
Looking for Property Management you can find more information about us at: www.cartrefproperties.com
Empty Homes Tax Declaration
What is the empty homes tax? The City of Vancouver brought in the empty homes tax to help eliminate homes that were sitting empty and not being used, by the owner or by other parties. Owners who live in their property, or rent them out for at least 6 months of the year will not have to pay the tax as long as they make the annual declaration the property was occupied.
If you are renting a property located in the City of Vancouver you are required to declare if your property was rented by February 2, 2022. There is no reason to wait if you know your property wasn’t empty. Follow the link below to the declaration page and instructions on how to declare.
Failure to declare can result in a tax being assessed to your property in the amount of 3% of the assessed value of the property. With the value of real estate in Vancouver this can be a significant penalty to any homeowner. Additionally, the city may apply a fine for failing to declare the empty home tax.
https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/declare-property-status.aspx
Need assistance managing your rental property? contact us for an evaluation of your needs.
Cartref Properties specializes in managing rental units located within Strata Corporations.
www.cartrefproperties.com
Why use a Licensed Property Manager
If you own a property and need to have it rented. Who should you hire to manage the property? Good Question.
In BC the Real Estates Services Act is the law which outlines what a transaction in real estate is and who can manage those transactions for other people. We will look here at Rental Management specifically. It is a requirement to be licensed to provide rental management services in BC for others, unless you are in an exempt category.
The definition of rental management in the Real Estate Services act is as follows:
"rental property management services" means any of the following services provided to or on behalf of an owner of rental real estate:
trading services in relation to the rental of the real estate;
collecting rents or security deposits for the use of the real estate;
managing the real estate on behalf of the owner by
(i) making payments to third parties,
(ii) negotiating or entering into contracts,
(iii) supervising employees or contractors hired or engaged by the owner, or
(iv) managing landlord and tenant matters
The Real Services Act requires individuals to be licensed to provide Real Estate Services in BC to or on behalf of another in exchange for remuneration. There are some exemptions including, the owner of the property may manage the rental, caretakers hired by owners of a property, trustees in bankruptcy, executor or administrators of an estate, persons acting under the order of a court, practising lawyers and financial institutions with respect to real estate it owns. All other parties must be licensed to provide third party rental management in BC.
What are the benefits of using a licensed individual to manage your rental property?
All Real Estate Professionals are governed by the British Columbia Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) which has rules, regulations and requirements in place to protect consumers in the management of their real estate. All rental property managers are required to be employed by a real estate brokerage and have a license. Every two years property managers are required to renew their license, during the two year licensed period property managers are required to engage in specific training to ensure they are complying with regulations in the industry. The brokerage must follow strict rules for accounting the funds they collect from real estate transactions in trust accounts which can be audited by BCFSA for accuracy.
How do I know if a person or company is licensed?
The BCFSA website has information available for professionals and the public. Under public resources in the Real Estate section there is an area labeled “Find a Real Estate Professional”. In this section it gives you the opportunity to enter an individual's name and or name of the brokerage. If you enter the name of the person or the company and nothing identifies them, then they are not licensed in BC. BCFSA offers many more resources for customers explaining how professional managers are required to represent their clients, regarding conflicts of interest, confidentiality and how client money is managed.
If you are not sure your property manager is licensed, view the link below to find out.
https://www.bcfsa.ca/public-resources
Need assistance managing your rental property? contact us for an evaluation of your needs.
Cartref Properties specializes in managing rental units located within Strata Corporations.
www.cartrefproperties.com
Rental Restrictions, are they Discriminatory?
I am a middle aged divorced man, father of two early adult children, one works full time in the film industry and is saving to buy his first home at the age of 21. The other is in his first year of post secondary education at Douglas college. I am a small business owner. I am a hard working individual who volunteered many hours of my time in my community while raising my kids, coaching, participating and organizing the sporting activities they were engaged in.
When you read the above what do you think?
There are many factors that affect the cost of housing for people purchasing and or renting.
In 2010 the province changed the law requiring all new Strata Corporations to indicate on the form J, Rental disclosure statement, a time frame when a strata lot could be a rental property. This effectively removed Strata Corporation’s right to establish a rental restriction bylaw. For properties built before January 2010 they have the ability to have a rental restriction bylaw. Are these rental bylaws helping increase the cost of housing in BC, I think they are. Are they discriminatory, I also believe they are.
A rental restriction bylaw can take many forms and one of those is limiting the owner’s ability to rent “part” of their strata lot when the owner resides in the property. The Civil Resolution Tribunal has reviewed multiple cases challenging rental restriction bylaws, in particular relating to renting a portion of a strata lot. Each case has been denied by the Civil Resolution Tribunal. Owners have tried to argue that renting part of the strata lot is not in violation of the bylaws based on the fact that the Residential Tenancy Act does not classify these types of situations as a rental. The most recent case is Cardenas vs NWR2247.
The Cardenas case is very interesting and highlights a problem with the Strata Property Act, Human Rights Code and how they are affecting the cost of housing. Cardenas didn’t dispute having a “roommate” and admitted he rented a room in his strata lot. Cardenas argued as had the other cases before the Civil Resolution Tribunal that the rental is not a rental as the Residential Tenancy Act, which is the legislation which governs tenancies in BC, does not acknowledge roommates as a tenancy, and that the strata property act has a provision that prohibits Strata Corporations from having a bylaw which contravenes another act. (section 121)
The adjudicator in the Cardenas case explained the Strata Property Act has its own definition of a tenant which is as follows: "tenant" means a person who rents all or part of a strata lot, and includes a subtenant but does not include a leasehold tenant in a leasehold strata plan as defined in section 199 or a tenant for life under a registered life estate;
and therefore the section 121 (1)(a) unenforceable bylaws does not apply in this case as the Residential Tenancy Act does not govern the Strata Property Act and its definition of a tenant. It states just because the Residential Tenancy Act does not recognize a roommate as a tenant, the Strata Property Act has the right to do so. This leads to the question of when would section 121 (1) (a) be enforceable?. Section 121 states (1) (a)states:
121 (1) A bylaw is not enforceable to the extent that it
(1)(a) contravenes this Act, the regulations, the Human Rights Code or any other enactment or law,
The Cardenas case adjudicator indicated that even though the rental restriction bylaw didn’t specify renting part of the strata lot was prohibited, the bylaw was still enforceable.
It begs the question of how the act that determines and governs rentals in BC can be overridden by a definition in another act. If the Strata Property Act has a definition of what a crime is, different to what the criminal code defines as a crime, would the Strata Property Act prevail?
The bigger question to this and the other cases are these bylaws restricting renting a part of the strata lot discriminatory to owners, potential owners and tenants, I believe they are.
As described above the definition in the Strata Property Act of a tenant is a person who rents all or part of a strata lot. Section 142 of the strata property act outlines “family” and “family member” as described in the regulations as being exempt from rental restrictions. Section 8 of the Strata Property Regulations describes family members to include the following:
8.1 (1) For the purposes of section 142 of the Act, "family" and "family member" means
(a) a spouse of the owner,
(b)a parent or child of the owner, or
(c)a parent or child of the spouse of the owner.
(2)In subsection (1), "spouse of the owner" includes an individual who has lived with the owner, for a period of at least 2 years at the relevant time, in a marriage-like relationship.
What does this mean to someone who owns a strata lot and has space for a roommate?. Who is eligible to live with them and who is not? In accordance with the current laws the following people are prohibited to live with an owner if there's a rental restriction bylaw.
A sibling (brother or sister), cousin, Aunt, Uncle, friend or partner who has not lived with the owner in a marriage-like relationship for two years. Let’s look at these more closely.
This means if a person buys a strata with a rental restriction, their sibling who lives in Ontario and wants to move here is prohibited from living with the owner.
Their cousin from another country who wants to come here for a year is not allowed to live with them.
Their boyfriend, girlfriend or partner of any kind is not allowed to move in. If they do, for the first two years they are in violation of a rental restriction bylaw.
Their best friend from growing up, from highschool or college is prohibited from moving in.
If one of your children is in a position to purchase a strata lot, should their sibling be allowed to live with them? Should their partner be allowed to move in?
Or when later in life, or after a divorce you as an owner meet a partner you want to move in with you, they would be in violation of a rental restriction bylaw.
According to the current definitions in the Strata Property Act and regulations, all of the above are currently prohibited.In these scenarios for the other person to move in, the owner would be required to change the title of the ownership of their property adding the individuals to the property as an owner, preventing the other person from being classified as a “tenant”
The human rights code is supposed to protect people from disrimination based on class of people. Why are Strata Corporations in my opinion, allowed to discriminate against a classification of people “tenants”, because they have a definition in their act which is different than what is in the Residential Tenancy Act. When renting a rental property, including in a Strata Corporation where a rental restriction bylaw exists, landlords are prohibited from discriminating against tenants. The current laws and decisions by the Civil Resolution Tribunal are granting Strata Corporations the right to discriminate against tenants.
As a strata manager, I have listened to many council members speak in a derogatory manner about “tenants”. They are tenants, they don’t keep it clean, we don’t want tenants they are always a problem, they don’t follow the rules. These are discriminatory comments based on a classification of people.
I kind of understand the ability of a strata to be allowed to restrict rentals of the entire unit, but it is time the Strata Property Act be amended allowing roommates of any kind for the benefit of housing costs, familys and to end discrimination. The Human Rights Code and the Civil Resolution Tribunal are failing tenants.
Some people are unable to afford a full property and renting a room is a very viable and affordable option. People’s economic situations are always changing and these restrictions prevent owners from being able to stay in “their home” when circumstances change.
When a couple goes through a breakup or divorce and one party keeps the strata lot, these laws restrict their ability to have other family, friends or a other tenant reside at the property to assist them to remain in their home. Or your family member needs a place to live and you are not able to provide that to them.
As a property manager, I have rented many properties to wonderful tenants who are great people. Why are Strata Corporations afraid of “tenants”?
Go back to the top and read the opening paragraph again before reading below.
Currently I am a tenant.