Are you a strata member or landlord who:
- Hates dealing with people?
- Doesn’t understand the ins and outs of your responsibilities?
- Feels like everything in your strata or rental is too much on top of everything else you’re dealing with? (Like your career or personal life?)
Here are 7 benefits you get with HomeLife:
Benefit 1
Great Communication
One thing that drives you crazy is poor communication. You want your concerns addressed as soon as possible – but how can they be when your manager doesn’t respond to your calls or emails?
Property managers must be on top of communication at all times.
We get back to your calls and form submissions as soon as we can!
Benefit 2
Trained Conflict Resolution For Chaotic Situations
All of our managers go through extensive, professional conflict resolution training. Working with people can be chaos – we’re equipped to help smooth out the crazy that comes along with strata.
2 ways we avoid conflict:
- Open minds – we make sure everyone is given a chance to speak their opinion in meetings
- Concise meetings – there’s always an agenda drafted for meetings – which means there’s no chance for people to get off topic, frustrating everyone else in the meeting
Benefit 3
Competitive Maintenance Rates
Our strong relationship with contractors means you get competitive prices on your development’s maintenance.
There’s also no upcharging for landlords. If your unit needs repair (say a toilet’s no operating properly and you need a plumber) you only pay for the service. We don’t tack on any extra charges.
Benefit 4
Bylaw Enforcement & Collecting Fees
Sick of hounding people to follow the bylaws? Are there fines that haven’t been paid yet and you don’t want to chase down those who owe anymore?
You don’t need to enforce your bylaws or collect fines – we do it for you.
Benefit 5
Council Training
Your property manager ensures your council members are always aware of their responsibilities, such as (but not limited to) :
- Writing bylaws
- Maintaining common property
- Collecting fees
- Attending council meetings
- Drafting meeting minutes
When a council fails to fulfill their duties, the following problems arise:
Broken common property never gets fixed (e.g. elevators, leaking roof, etc.)
There’s no budget in place for maintenance (such as burst pipes or faulty electrical)
Are you a council member who feels a bit lost?
Read our Ultimate Guide To Strata Management to learn:
- Specific council member roles & duties
- 4 common strata mistakes
- How to hire or change property management companies
- And much more!
Benefit 6
Large Team Of Property Managers
If your property manager is unable to fulfill their duties for some reason (e.g. illness), there’s always someone who can fill their shoes.
Benefit 7
Thorough Services For Strata Corporations And Landlords
You can hire us for strata management and rental management.
Here’s a complete breakdown of all that we offer for each:
Strata Management
For Residential Strata Developments
Financial Organising
Financial Planning
We’re here to advise you with structuring your budget. We assist with:
> Your budgeting process
- Most reasonable budget for each independent strata
- Capital planning
> Depreciation reports (planning and preparing for maintenance)
- Reroofing
- Repainting
> Contingency fund requirements
- Put in place as a safety net for all emergency needs.
Records and Transaction
We help you keep accurate records of:
- Payables
- Receivables
- Payroll services
-
Employee bondingAn agreement put in place that protects the strata against theft or damage by a hired worker (e.g. a contractor). If the worker causes damage to the strata development, they have to pay for the repairs.
We also produce:
- Strata fee schedules
- Operating budgets
- Monthly financial statements
Your Manager is always available to answer any questions you may have.
Revenue Assurance
Hate collecting fees? We do it for you! We process all fees that are collected through:
- Auto-deposit
- In-person transactions
You’ll get help with:
- Levies
- Miscellaneous charges
- Bylaw infractions
- Lien process
- Interest
- Collection of delinquent accounts
- Outstanding strata fees
- Fine assessments
We deposit all funds to your
Communication
Consultative Meetings
Each strata is different - we tailor to all of them. If we can’t do something because we’re not experts in that field, we assist you in finding the right person.
Examples of required experts are:
- Architects
- Lawyers
- Engineers
Constant Communication
You’re always able to contact us, and we’ll always keep you up to date with changes, such as:
- Daily operations within your strata
- Water shut-offs
- Capital asset projects (reroofing, etc.)
- Changes to garbage schedule
- Legislative requirements
- Changes to rental restriction bylaws
- New cannabis legislation
Streamlined Meetings
We’re here to help organise any meetings that need to take place, such as:
- AGM (annual general meeting) Required once a year
- SGM (special general meeting)
- Called at any time by owners or council.
- Deals with bylaws
- General council meetings
- Meetings with elected officials
- Deals with the month to month details of strata.
- Regularly scheduled.
We help enforce attendance by emailing reminders, and preparing and distributing agendas.
Emergency Services
If the worst happens (e.g. fire or flood), we support you and your Council through the difficult times ahead.
We offer:
- A 24-hour emergency service for all owners
...and organisation of:
- The clean-up
- Insurance claims
- Anything else that crops up in an emergency.
Legal & Upkeep Services
Repairs and Maintenance
Your strata is responsible for the upkeep of the building’s common property - which changes with each strata.
Examples of maintenance:
- The roof
- Paint
- Carpets
- Windows
- Doors
- Elevator
- Roadways
- Underground parking
- Landscape maintenance
Because of our size, we have huge negotiating power to get you discounts on repair and maintenance contracts. We also aid with:
The bidding process
Administration of all contract services
Insurance and Government Responsibilities
Get assistance with the organization of the Annual Appraisal of Assets (industry standard insurance appraisal) and any insurance claims.
Our expertise gives you an advantage in negotiating insurance premiums.
Every year, we prepare and submit a T-2 Taxation Form to Canada Revenue Agency.
We also prepare and submit any documentation required by WorkSafe BC.
To Contractors who work for our clients should have WorkSafe and adequate insurance.
We ensure they do.
Site Management
We act as your representative in all Site Management responsibilities, such as...
...regular monthly property inspections and reports
...supervision of on-site maintenance workers
...assistance with bylaw and rules enforcement procedures
- we work with the contractors on site, monitor what they’re doing, set expectations, and confirm the work was done properly.
- If there are issues, we act as the voice of the Strata council.
We enforce any contracts.
Legal Services
We act as your registered office for all:
- Legal documents
- Meeting Minutes
- Registers
- Financial records pertaining to your strata property
We also liaise with your lawyers on any legal matters, such as:
- Wording of bylaws
- Wording of any resolutions of expenditures
- Enforcement of bylaws
- Foreclosure proceedings.
- Negotiating deals with the city in regards to land requisition.
- Land acquisition.
We liaise with the council through the civil resolution tribunal for any small claims.
It’s required to have a legal address for all strata documents to be stored and delivered to.
With us as that point of contact for you, there’s no worry over registering a different address every year (which happens if you use a council member as the point of contact). You only have to register us once.
Maintenance
Your manager deals with any maintenance that crops up. All you do is pay the invoices.
We never hire unlicensed tradesmen, and we never upcharge on maintenance. For example, if the plumber charges $100, that’s what you pay.
Owner Protection
Your manager always hosts showings. Tenants are never given a key to the property until they’ve been approved, have signed the necessary paperwork, and have paid the deposit.
This is important – there are horror stories out there of prospective tenants receiving keys early and just moving in to become squatters. This never happens with one of our rental managers.
Rent Collection
Rent is due on a set date – this never changes. If a tenant is late, it’s not your concern. We work it out with the tenant for you.
Rent is always auto-deposited into the bank account you specify.
Statements
You will have 24/7 access to your on-line statements. You can see past rent received as well as copies of all invoices related to your property. You’ll also get a full year-end statement every tax season making it easy to deal with.
24-Hour Emergency Service
You get a strong support system with us. If something happens that needs immediate attention, our 24-hour emergency service is there to help you and your tenants.
Rent Advisement
If you’re unsure what to charge for rent, we can advise you when we’re taking a look at your property.