According to Statistics Canada, from 2019 to 2020, over half of all new houses in BC were condos. If you are part of a strata corporation, your strata may be self-managed or managed by a property manager. Let’s talk about what to consider if you are going with a property manager.

If the strata is a larger complex with many unit holders, engaging a property manager is a common choice. A property manager can also be helpful if a strata has complicated guidelines to follow or issues with finding volunteers to manage the complex. If you are thinking of engaging a property manager, you may want to decide how they will:

• collect the fees
• handle bill payments
• decide what to do with excess funds on deposit
• handle insurance considerations
• determine any lending considerations

Your financial institution should be able to help you navigate these issues. For example, at Coastal Community we offer the self-managed AFT Payment stream to make fee collection easy. This user-friendly program allows you register each unit holder of the strata and keep separate records and reporting for each.

You can also check how your financial institution handles costs associated with collecting cheques or receiving e-transfers. Another good question is whether their online services make it easy to maintain memberships, make payments as required and manage excess funds. At CCCU, we have a team of experts who will work closely with stratas and property managers to ensure they have the products and services required to effectively manage each strata.

You’ll also want to investigate how conveniently your financial institution handles the signatory requirements when two signatures are required—does their online program make that simple and fast? Other considerations include insurance requirements such as property insurance, strata corporation insurance, liability insurance for the strata corporation, and Errors and Omissions insurance for the strata council members.

And finally, you’ll want to determine how your financial institution will work with your property manager to assist with any lending considerations like upgrades to existing buildings or new construction.

If you have any questions about what’s best for your strata, don’t hesitate to contact us to find out how Coastal Community can help.