05/06/2019 – Jurisdiction British Columbia
Part 67 published on 01/09/2019
Listing of Strata Property for sale requires only a simple majority vote of owners
As a preliminary step in the possible winding up of the strata corporation and sale of the strata property, the owners had voted (by simple majority) in favour of listing the property for sale.
The Applicant owner argued that a supermajority was required for such a listing of the property for sale. The chambers Judge held that no such supermajority was required (for the mere listing of the property for sale, as preliminary to possible approval of a sale of the property). According to the chambers Judge, a simple majority was sufficient.
The Applicant appealed, and the appeal was dismissed. The Court of Appeal said:
The strata owners in the present case have yet to formally commence the Division 2 winding-up process. Indeed, as recognized by the chambers judge, a vote under s. 277(1) “may not be necessary at all if the realtor is unable to obtain a favourable offer on the building.” It may also be possible for the owners to wind up the strata corporation and cancel the strata plan under Division 1—that is, without a liquidator—in which case the listing and marketing of the strata complex would need to be conducted by the owners.
In any event, I conclude that Division 2 of Part 16 neither imposes an 80% voting threshold upon the listing of a strata complex for sale nor limits the authority to list or market such property to only the liquidator.
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…the solicitation of offers pursuant to a listing would place the owners in a better position to judge the benefits of any winding up that might later be proposed. It would thus be both counterproductive and “overly interventionist,” to borrow a phrase from the chambers judge, to impose a heightened voting requirement at this preliminary stage of the winding-up process.