Marina Estates residents are on tenterhooks following two blows last week that, for some, could mean the difference between housing security and homelessness.
Early in the week, residents were issued a Dynamic Property Management letter stating that by Aug. 21, liens will be registered against those condo owners who have not yet paid a special leaky condo renovation levy.
So far, just over 20 residents out of the complex's six buildings have paid. For the rest, foreclosure proceedings may not be far away.
On March 25, the strata voted 97 per cent to approve a special levy to fix the Marina Estates complex at a cost of between $50,000 and $80,000 per unit, due July 31.
They are eligible for the Housing Protection Office (HPO) interest-free loans program tailored specifically for leaky condo owners, and its chief operating officer, Bob Maling, recently wrote the Marina Estates strata to the complex's funding was 11th on a waiting.
"Once the office has completed funding arrangements for those projects whose applications were already approved July 10, 2009, we will be able to turn our attention to those projects that are still waiting to be evaluated," stated Maling's letter. "Depending on the available funds, as we work our way down the list we hope to give you a clearer picture of what the timing will be as soon as we know that ourselves."
But on Friday (July 31), a second blow was delivered when Housing Minister Rich Coleman announced the program will no longer fund leaky condo repairs because construction levies sourcing the program have dried up.
Now strata president Hazel Giese said she doesn't know whether applications for funding are still pending, or if they've been scrapped as well. But even if the do get grandfathered, locals may not see provincial loans until April - proving much too late for those owing levies.
Giese said she's leaning toward an optimistic view that liens and looming foreclosures may help some residents get bank loans that would otherwise have been rejected.
"I know of four people now who had previously been unable to get financing, two of whom I had thought would lose their homes, are all thank goodness, in the process ofreceiving funding," she said. "I have not yet heard of anyone who is definitely facing a forced order of sale."
A group of residents is reportedly forming to look into their legal options, but they would not speak to media, and Giese said she hasn't heard of any such activity. Meanwhile, Gieses said support from District of Squamish council has been "really excellent."
Council members sent a letter to the Housing minister stating they feel Marina Estates residents should be supported, especially given the amount of funds the HPO received from Squamish's construction boom.
"We do understand that it's funded by development," said Mayor Greg Gardner, "and our position that the District of Squamish has contributed from our developments a significant amount of money to that fund. And our expectation is that that money, or at least a portion of it, come back to our community to support these types of issues within Squamish."
According to district records, a $750 fee was paid to the HPO for each of the 794 condominiums built in Squamish since the inception of the program in October 1998. That adds up to close to $600,000 in levies paid by the community to a fund that is believed to have never been accessed by any homeowner in the District of Squamish.
