There’s a nasty little turf war going on in the Shining Valley. It’s all about power and control issues, jurisdictional disputes, and of course, squabbles about errant deposits of doggie doo-doo. Welcome to the Squamish condo scene, folks.
Condominiums, also known as stratas, have increased in popularity, and interaction between residents in those enclaves has resulted in a variety of so-called pinch points. Disputes over finances and unpaid strata assessment fees, as well as personality clashes and procedural wrangling by elected strata councils, are just a few examples.
Mike Young, who represents Dynamic Property Management Ltd. here in town, says the four P’s are at the centre of many strata-related conflicts: parking, pets, pot smoke and parties. Clashes regarding unauthorized parking in laneways, or designate visitor parking spaces, are becoming more common. So are objections about raucous celebrations and noise complaints in general. Some owners are capitalizing on the tight rental market in town by subletting rooms and, in the process, creating potential conflicts with their neighbours over parking and other concerns.
We love our pooches but there is a limit to that outpouring of affection, especially if somebody else’s canine companion drops a calling card on a nearby lawn or barks incessantly. And when it comes to smells, what constitutes a fragrant cloud of doobie or cigarette smoke in one unit may be considered an intrusive odour in an adjoining residence.
Squamish has not escaped the leaky-condo contagion that infested the Lower Mainland. A 2007 engineering report claimed it would cost $4 million to fix the damage related to a building envelope failure at the Marina Estates complex. Residents were saddled with the tab and some owners even lost their homes after failing to secure interest-free loans from the B.C. Housing Protection Office.
Hopefully we can avoid the nasty brouhaha that sparked more than a dozen lawsuits at a 55-and-over building in Abbotsford. According to Maclean’s magazine, residents accused each other of in an assortment of abuses, including spray-painting parked vehicles with derogatory graffiti, egging cars and tampering with a scooter. Provincial Court Judge Robert Hamilton said the disputants behaved less like senior citizens and more like “emotional children who have not yet learned the basic tenets of acting civilly toward each other.”
When everything is said and done, as developers flood the Squamish housing market with more and more condos, it may be time to advise people living cheek by jowl to just get along.
