These papers and documents will be helpful to owners as they try to understand and deal with the challenges presented by our long range capital planning requirements. Each document shows the original date of posting to this website. I welcome questions as well as suggestions at camdot@shaw.ca
FINANCING CAPITAL EXPENDITURES
1. Financing Repairs with Borrowed Funds: by Elaine McCormack of Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP. (Sept.1, 2017)
This paper reviews the legal issues that arise when a strata takes out a bank loan for construction expenses. A sample resolution for approving a bank loan application is included.
2. A Report on “The CCI/CWB Seminar on Financing Large Projects: March 28, 2017.”
On March 28, 2017, the Canadian Condominium Institute and the Canadian Western Bank co-sponsored a seminar about financing large projects with a bank loan. These are the meeting notes that were provided by CWB.
3. A Court Decision on Sequencing Asset Renewal Projects. (Jan.9, 2018.)
When a project is completed that benefits some, but not others, how do you get those who benefited to help pay for the additional work that the “others” deserve to have done? This court case answers that question.
4. What Will Be My Share of Depreciation Expenditures? (Feb. 17, 2018)
An important question on all of our minds is “how much will the depreciation report cost me?”
It is very easy to figure this out and this paper shows you how.
I use my own suite as an example, just to make the calculation easy to understand.
5. How Can Individual Owners Pay For These Capital Expenditures? (Feb. 17, 2018)
When a capital plan is finally put into place, many of us will need to find ways to pay our share.
This paper introduces some of the options.
DEPRECIATION REPORTS
6. Harbour Cove Windows: Highlights from Four Reports. (Aug.18, 2017)
The purpose of this report to the LTCPTF is to identify every page in the main bodies (i.e. not appendices) of the four HC building envelope studies completed since 2006 that contain comments about windows . The contents of those pages are summarized in this paper and identified by page number. A consistent theme throughout each of these 4 study reports from specialist consultants is that the windows and doors of Harbour Cove have outlasted their useful life and need to be replaced.
7. More on Highlights from Four Reports. (Aug. 18, 2017)
This document contains scans of each entire page that was summarized in the preceding document (No.1).
8. A Report to HC Council by Lee Hanson. (April 26, 2010.)
As early as 2002, and until around 2015, Harbour Cove utilized Lee Hanson of L.A. Hanson and Associates Ltd. as their main consultant on building envelope issues. Unfortunately, Lee has passed away.
This paper reviews the many construction and design flaws in our window systems that have led every consultant, except WSP, to unequivocally state that these assemblies will need to be replaced.
You will note that Lee refers a couple of times to a “lack of/or improper installation of building wrap in all Phases”. He is referring to the waterproofing of the wooden infills surrounding each window assembly. In conversations with Brian Hale, who was the HC Building Manager for more than 10 years before Ciprian, I have been told that the infills in 1470 have no waterproofing of any kind and, in the other two Phases, that much if not all of the waterproofing was tarpaper rather than plastic.
9. Harbour Cove Urgent IGUs: A Short and a Long Term Strategy. (Sept.1, 2017)
This report presented the results of a self-reporting owner survey on what they deemed were “urgent” cases of failed IGUs. The four recommendations in this paper have been in good part implemented.
A tangential observation in the report was the first time the financial magnitude of the RJC Depreciation Report was specifically examined in terms of its major implications. It is pointed out that to complete all of the recommendations as presented for the first 12 years of the RJC report would require an average annual contribution from the owners of 2.8 million dollars per year.
10. Windows History and Policy Discussion Paper. (Nov 30, 2017)
This is an extensive review of what has been done to repair and maintain windows over the past several years and a discussion of what we have learned from this that we can apply to dealing with the RJC report.
Summaries of the five recommendations that emerge from this are:
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- “The CPTF should recommend that Council ask the owners if they want to have a Capital Planning Committee institutionalized as a permanent standing committee.”
- “The task of determining the timing and sequencing of window/door projects is absolutely essential before any other planning of significance goes forward and we should recommend to Council that this begin immediately.”
- “The Capital Planning Committee needs to be authorized to collect and collate historical data about repairs and maintenance and the data needs to be made much more accessible.”
- “There is also a need to establish a Financial Planning Committee staffed with volunteers, to collect and collate historical and future cost data, to monitor government incentive programs, to analyze and describe financing options to owners, to assist council in formulating long-range funding options, and so on.”
- “Last, but by no means least, the CPTF should recommend to Council that the Council make known its intention to inform and involve owners in a more proactive way.”
11. The Layton Report. (Dec. 1, 2017.)
This is a report from Layton Consulting that was commissioned by Council in June of 2010. It provides the most lucid description of the structure of our windows that I have found and includes short, intermediate, and long term recommendations for window remediation.
12. A Second Paper About Lobby Renovation Initiatives. (Dec. 4, 2017)
A few days after I prepared the Oct. 30 report on lobbies, I found council minutes about an even earlier initiative. Here is a revision of the earlier paper (item 9 above) that includes the information about all three initiatives – 2009, 2011, and 2015.
13. Some Background on the WSP Moisture Study. (Feb.12, 2018.)
There has been, and will be, a considerable amount of debate about the utility of the WSP study. This paper discusses it origins and raises questions about its utility.
A detailed critique of the WSP Study and Report undertaken by Tony Dorcey dated Oct. 17, 2017and distributed by him to all members of Council and LTCPTF adds telling support to the questions I raise and my critical comments.
14. 2017 RJC Report
This report is now out-of-date, but the 150 pages of the photographs of various assets, plus data about the probable useful life span of each, is valuable.
PLANNING
15. A Survey of Market Values for Condo Suites Roughly Comparable to Harbour Cove Suites. SPREADSHEET (Oct.17, 2017)
It has been said that property values at Harbour Cove are inordinately low. I collected some real estate data regarding this question (including DOM, Days on Market) and, although absolute comparisons are not possible, the weight of evidence seems to indicate that Harbour Cove values are reasonably competitive. Frankly, I was surprised to learn this given the costly Depreciation Report we are dealing with.
I did get some strong blowback from 2 or 3 committee members about this but none of them submitted a shred of evidence except their opinion. If any of you dear readers have solid evidence that our property values are inordinately low, please let me know.
16. Guide to Managing Renewals Projects in Multi-Unit Residential Buildings (May 5, 2018).
This Guide was produced under the auspices of the Homeowner Protection Office Branch of BC Housing and is designed to provide practical information to help owners, strata managers and strata council members manage the planning and implementation of renewal projects for multi-unit residential buildings.
The Guide was prepared by RDH Building Engineering Ltd. and a steering committee composed of representatives from the Condominium Home Owners Association of B.C. (CHOA), Touwslager Engineering Ltd., Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia, Bayside Property, Travelers Insurance Company of Canada and a consumer representative.
A checklist of steps for proceeding with implementation of a depreciation report begins on page 31 and is a must read for all who are engaged in such a process. The reader will note none of the recommendations for use of consulting expertise, starting with Step #7, have yet been followed at Harbour Cove.