Advantages Condo

In the previous issue we discussed the proposed changes to the majorities required for certain decisions at the assembly of co-owners.

In this issue we will discuss recommendations to make it easier for the buyer of a fraction of co-ownership to obtain the information necessary for an informed purchase.

According to the report of the Advisory Committee on co-ownership it was found by the latter during the public hearings that access to information held by the syndicate for a buyer who performs due diligence is often difficult, and that even the co-owner seller must face the same difficulties. Depending on the current state of the law the registry of co-ownership can be accessed only by one of the co-owners, or by a designated agent, and the prospective buyer can only ask the syndicate if the co-owner seller owes unpaid common charges to the syndicate.

La Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) publie le Guide explicatif des exigences d’entretien des façades. Destiné aux propriétaires des bâtiments visés, ce guide vise à faciliter la compréhension des obligations liées à l’entretien des façades.

Let us remind that in December 2010, Bill 122, being the Act amending the Building Act concerning, in particular, the modernization of the safety standards, went into effect without leaving the population indifferent. First, remember, because this legislation was due to unfortunate accidents that claimed the lives of two people (a concrete panel detaching from the facade of a hotel and a concrete slab detached from an underground parking). Moreover, because the regulations that would ensue might bring with them significant costs for landlords.
The draft regulations expected for several months were published on 20 June 2012 in the Gazette officielle du Québec. These Regulations, aiming at improving security in the building, will therefore add a chapter called Building to the Safety Code, as explained in a previous article.

Following public consultations held in March, April and May of 2012, for which we filed a written submission and have made representations on 7 November, the Advisory Committee on co-ownership has filed its report with the Minister of Justice, Mr. Bertrand St-Arnaud, and the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Notaries of Quebec.

In addition to presenting an overview of the information gathered during the public consultations this report contains recommendations for legislative changes aimed at divided co-ownership in Quebec, which will be considered by the Minister of Justice and which will possibly give rise to legislative changes affecting co-ownership.

In this holiday season, the team you want to emphasize Advantages Condo appreciation to count you among its members and wishes to express to you his best wishes.

Looking forward to serving you in 2013!

There is no requirement in law for a tenant to purchase insurance or liability. By cons, you should know that it can be a significant advantage during a disaster. Insurance is considered an insurance, which according to the Civil Code of Québec, guarantees against the consequences of an event that may affect the property of a person, so that it owns. Comes when an event causing damage, the tenant may be liable. For example, water damage caused by overfilled bath water that spreads into other housing, fire from your kitchen because you were inattentive for a moment, are examples of events that can cause loss of property many occupants of the same building. Invoice losses can mount quickly enough, both in terms of damage to the building owner as the property of other tenants. If you do not have insurance, it's your pocket that will possibly get the money needed to repair the damage in the event that you were responsible, or if your property was damaged during a disaster .

Sometimes, directors and co-owners raise the question whether, through an amendment to the declaration of co-ownership adopted by the assembly of co-owners, they can change the number of votes required for a decision?

It is an interesting question. With regard to the level of motivation that administrators or co-owners can have to consider a modification of this order, we think that it is sometimes difficult to obtain the required majorities to vote on issues such as changing common portions, changing the constitution of the act of declaration, or even a real-estate acquisition by the syndicate. In this case, some would wish that these decisions could be taken by a slimmer majority than those prescribed by sections 1097, 1098 and 1108 of the Civil Code of Quebec.

Who will take care of you and your property if you can not do so anymore by yourself? You should know that incapacity can take many forms and can have different intensities. For instance, it may be due to a coma following an accident or to a degenerative disease. When inability is established, a procedure is initiated to create a protective supervision for the incapacitated adult. A meeting of relatives, persons connected by marriage or civil union and friends will take place so that they will be deciding on the person called tutor or curator who would be best placed to take care of yourself and your property. In addition, they will identify those who should be on the tutorship council, just about the same way as for the minor, as we remember. It is important to know that the tutor or curator must obtain the consent of the tutorship council or even of the Court to perform certain actions. For instance, the tutor must obtain Court permission to sell or mortgage any property of a value of more than $ 25,000, your income property, for example.

Generally speaking, the married or common-law spouse cannot do what he/she wants with the family residence without the consent of the other spouse, regardless of which one of the two spouses owns the property.

The family residence is where the family members have their principal activities and may also be subject to a lease, so there is no real need to be owner of it. One must, however, in order to be protected, notify the owner of the property that it is the residence used for the family, under Section 403 of the Civil Code of Québec.

The co-owner who signs and submits his power of attorney to a person of his choice does thus not lose the personal exercise of his rights. He may thus choose to revoke his power of attorney at any time to resume the exercise of his personal rights, and the co-owner who will choose to attend in person at the assembly of co-owners may require that the power of attorney is remitted by his agent. Some co-owners prefer to attend in person while allowing their agents to exercise their right to speak at the assembly, but the co-owner will live with this choice: there is only one right to speak, and this in order to avoid that the issues and proposals are made cumulatively by the co-owner or his agent. The co-owner can therefore not adopt such a strategy to monopolize or abuse the right to speak to the detriment of other co-owners present. However, in our opinion, the presence of the co-owner and his agent, seems to go against the intent of the mandate, i.e. to represent and attend oneself instead of another person.