SunriseChampion
Senior Member
I wasn't able to watch (no telly and only mobile internet)....did they not expose the fraud that is Urbancorp?
Shame, that.
Shame, that.
Others have responded to this so I won't add a lot, but I'm curious, which model of ownership in residential buildings do you feel is superior? Maintenance issues are just as common in houses and rental buildings, if not more so.Nope, we already know that's not true. The documentary covered one of the major issues: maintenance. A house or rental property has one owner who has the right to do whatever maintenance is necessary. Condo boards are notoriously bad at taking care of maintenance and handling the finances necessary to do them. And there isn't much a single condo owner can do about that, and yet poor maintenance can affect their quality of life and the value of their investment. This can become a nightmare when a condo building is 20+years old, needs major work, and there isn't enough money to do it. So in 20 years time, we could have a lot of housing stock around the city that is in terrible shape. What then?
Others have responded to this so I won't add a lot, but I'm curious, which model of ownership in residential buildings do you feel is superior? Maintenance issues are just as common in houses and rental buildings, if not more so.
That if if the condo board is well managed and takes the future into account (which is key, and mandated to a certain degree), they should have enough funds to cover all the maintenance projects that arise, some of these involve a lot of money, but the reserve fund studies by engineering firms are meant to address just this !
There is also the problem that even if you have a 'perfect' property manager the Board (elected by the owners) may not follow their advice and at the end of the day the Board is in charge. Educating Directors is (in theory anyway) a good idea but if the Board wants to do something the owners do not want then the owners can replace them.You can't legislate good management. You can't enforce it without employing regulators to check up on the managers - and that costs tax money. And it has failed to work with numerous other initiatives so why would condos be any different?
There is also the problem that even if you have a 'perfect' property manager the Board (elected by the owners) may not follow their advice and at the end of the day the Board is in charge. Educating Directors is (in theory anyway) a good idea but if the Board wants to do something the owners do not want then the owners can replace them.
I recently spent some time in an old Victorian row house that everybody loves. A century in, what is wrong with it?
1)roof is on verge of collapse
2)brick is falling off often in high winds
3)porch collapsed
4)windows are very drafty
5)house is on a slant
6)mold
7)severe plumbing defects
8)large gaps between floor tiles, boards, walls etc
9)huge rodent problem
10)sidewalk cracked, gaping holes in concrete steps
11)unfinished basement
12)severe noise transmission problems--can easily hear neighbours
13)ineffective heater--house was freezing cold in most rooms
Its estimated market price?
$1 million.
What? My unit?Did you see the concrete unit in that Urbancorp building? That was downright terrible and there's nothing a board can do to fix that. Nothing tarion can do either. Stuff like that is the biggest problem and it hasn't really been talked about here.
Now that the market is dead, maybe we will start seeing some better construction, rules, etc...
Reading comprehension.
My WHOLE post was about the differences in dealing with maintenance in houses and rental buildings v. condos. That was also covered in the documentary.
What? My unit?
So they did look at Urbancorp massacres.
Thank God I'm renting because if I had a mortgage on this place I'd kill somebody.
Oh, yeah....one of my windows is missing weatherstripping on the interior. I get a nice breeze.