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I wasn't able to watch (no telly and only mobile internet)....did they not expose the fraud that is Urbancorp?
Shame, that.
 
I watched the documentary. It is said that the new downtown condos would be the slums of the future.
 
While many valid points were made in the documentary there is a clear and utter bias ...

To put it simply, all the tools are in place to make condo buildings much much more viable / long lasting / then a standard standalone house !! 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 !

Why better then a standalone house on average ? Well all the onus is on the one individual owner, they can let the house fall into a state of disrepair and sell (many times without revealing all the deficiencies ! This happens all too often).


With all that said more rules, regulations, and most importantly oversight is required - the new condo act should help, at least as a first step. I think 50/100 years from now we will condemn how condos were managed, but going forward thing will change and we'll wonder why we didn't get it right from the start ...
 
TOperson said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
MisterF said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
taal said:
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 !
Click to expand...

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?
 
TOperson said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
 
DSC said:
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.
Click to expand...

But how easy it, really, to change the board? I expect it requires some consensus among the owners (good luck with that) and a bunch of people willing to join the board. Everything has to come together just so. We've all heard the horror stories of the condo board members who think the condo is their own fiefdom, who bully & backstab & gossip, create cliques and factions and so on. Meanwhile, some poor sap has a $500K investment, basically their retirement fund, entangled with condo board loony tunes.

If things go wrong when you rent, you can always just up and leave. When you own a house, you can just go ahead with whatever repairs are necessary - or not, if you're willing to live with the consquences. Condo ownership is an in-between nightmare.
 
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...
 
urbandreamer said:
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.
Click to expand...

I'll give you $1.2 million for it, and I'll even waive the inspection!
 
TheKingEast said:
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...
Click to expand...
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.
 
TOperson said:
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.
Click to expand...

Speaking of reading comprehension, you didn't answer my question. But by your other post (the one that calls condos a nightmare) I'll infer that you believe that rental buildings and houses are better than condos when it comes to long term maintenance. You have yet to present any evidence of that.
 
MTown said:
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.
Click to expand...

Urbancorp is a crap builder.
 
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