Shocking Expense

Owners paid about 6 million dollars in special levies in relation to the building envelope project - a Profit to the responsible builders and associated professionals and a Loss to corresponding homeowners and families.

• We paid about 30-50% of comparative market values at the time in special levies - it was a staggering amount
• Our share for unit 409 cost us approximately $100,000
• Defects in design, materials, and labour during initial construction - and again during the building envelope project - caused significant and foreseeable damage
• Following completion of the building envelope project I estimate that our property value was approximately $100,000 less than its comparative value when new
• The brotherhood responsible for leaky condos was willfully blind to foreseeable damage and is reaping enormous profits for their own wrong-doing
• Individual homeowners are crushed with cost and loss
• Insurance companies suffer as well
• The damage to families and indirect costs to society are immeasurable
• Every member of the responsible brotherhood should admit their wrongs, apologize, and try to fix the damage
• They deny responsibility, profit from the damage, and continue adding more - both immediate and long term systemic harm
• My mother would spank me if I tried anything that bad when I was a child. Do they need their mothers to tell them what's the right thing to do? Why do I have to play tattle-tale?

I think this is such a scandal that every instance should be reported in the news - just like any hockey game. The truth should never be kept secret, swept under the carpet and hidden in the closet in a conspiracy of silence and non-disclosure agreements, in what I would call crimes by those with "respectible" social status. Whether it be white collar crime or bare backed construction worker crime - what happened here should be a capital crime - not to be tolerated.

• There are laws to protect against negligence
• There are laws to protect against breach of contract
• There are laws to protect against oppression
• There are laws to protect against assault
• But there is no access to justice for us who can't afford a lawyer or a trial
• Even our access to legislation that we paid our taxes for is restricted by copyright
• It brings the administration of justice into disrepute
• This cultivates a more wasteful and dysfunctional society

It doesn't seem to make sense - but maybe it actually does.
Is it possible that it fits into a long term scheme with intended benefits for the powers that be?

• I was born in 1950
• My remaining potential for future earnings is quite limited
• The responsible politicians, architects, engineers, builders, and strata agents profit individually and collectively from the damage and cost that I have to pay
• It unlikely that I will recover from these costs enough to cover my end of life needs and care
• But for the actions of the responsible politicians, architects, engineers, builders, and strata agents I might live longer
• I can understand that this may be a way of reducing the economic burden of pension payments for an aging population - but it is not an honest or ethical practice

It is what it is - but whatever it is - something is wrong.
White collar crime should be exposed and reported just as much as the misconduct of the under-privileged, it should not be covered up with non-disclosure clauses, slapp suits, and limited liability. Once exposed it is less likely to be automatically tolerated. Society is more likely to impose punitive penalties when people are not kept in the dark - even if some find it more comfortable to live in a fool's paradise - at least until war or death.

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Project Specifications were not easy for us to obtain, and from what I recall of the timing of any responses to our requests, before the work on our building was done they were withheld from us.

In spite of what owners paid in special levies most owners were not provided with material documents or the information needed to make informed decisions on the options available. We had no way of knowing either through the minutes or otherwise about most of the decisions being made on our behalf.

Even while my husband was a member of council his access to required and requested documents was obstructed and he was made to justify access. It was unreasonable, harmful, and upsetting.
I was not able to obtain copies of the material documents - until after substantial completion. The Project Specifications may have been better honoured if more owners knew exactly what they were.

Set 10
PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

Building Envelope Rehabiliation
Sunridge Estates
For
The Owners, Strata Plan VR 2671
September 14, 2004
Project No. 5022071.02
bearing the seals of
Terra Shimbashi, British Columbia Registered Architect
and
D. Fookes 27562
Professional Engineer, Province of British Columbia