I am very familiar with this building in particular, as well as all the buildings on that street (more generally). I think the above discussion takes the situation with the 01 elevation of the building out of its proper context.

1) All structures deteriorate. Whether a single family home, or a condominium tower, office complex, under ground garage or a tool shed, all structures require maintenance to extend their life expectancy and protect them from more rapid deterioration. Expecting Condo towers (in Vancouver or elsewhere) to simply stand forever, sans any signs of time is unreasonable.

If you live in a single family home, chances are at some point you’ll have to replace the roof of that home. Same goes for a condo tower. Spot repairs such as these are neither uncommon, nor unexpected.

2) The Aquarius complex consists of 4 towers containing 480 units between them. Their operating budgets are consistently in the millions, as is their contingency reserve. The 01 elevation of Tower I contains the largest balconies on in the complex (not counting penthouse and townhome rooftop decks), and not all units in the complex have balconies.

So putting this issue into its proper context means understanding that the repairs to the 01 elevation of the building were timely and relatively inexpensive. This particular strata can, and did afford these repairs without resorting to collection of extra funds from the owners. Further, since the 01 elevation is the only part of the entire complex with that particular balcony size and configuration the problem is unlikely to persist to the same degree elsewhere in the complex.

Even if one is to believe the “hype” of this post and thread, and suggest that all balconies in the whole strata are going to be affected – assuming 480 balconies in total (there are fewer in actuality), then the repair cost, as projected using the 01 elevation, are not significant for this strata.

3) This is an extremely proactive strata (with full-time maintenance personnel on staff), which is why their willingness to invest in legal opinions now, absent any signs of further problems, is not surprising but commendable.

4) I agree with the idea that newer construction in Vancouver is neither trustworthy nor livable, and have been advising all my clients for the past 4 years to avoid any new/presale/assignment situations. This is not to say, however, that all condo buildings are the same. There are some fantastic towers in Vancouver (rule of thumb: the older, the better in the downtown west core), of which 1199 Marinaside Crescent is one.

Artem August