http://kyegrace.com If you are buying a condo in Vancouver part of the process involves reviewing the Strata documents to ensure there are no hidden surprises. A client, who has vast experience on Strata Council, and I were discussing what are the big ones that people may overlook. Of course buyers in Vancouver think of the roof or building envelope but here are three other items to consider when buying into a condo building. Pools - Pools are expensive to maintain but even more expensive to repair. Never mind if something as simple as a resident breaking a glass or bottle pool side and it ends up in the pool. Now the pool needs to be drained, glass cleaned out, pool refilled and chemicals rebalanced. All of which costs money. Elevators - Ignore elevator maintenance, and performance will decline rapidly. Response time will increase. Downtime will increase. Repair costs will increase. Service life will be shortened. Complaints will increase. One of the most common symptoms of a system in need of overhaul or modernization is increasing service call frequencies. As components wear and age, they more readily go out of adjustment, either shutting down the system or interfering with its operation. This is particularly true with door operators. Door operators undergo tremendous wear and tear in daily operation. Each time the elevator stops, the door operators are activated at least two times, more frequently if occupants manually hold the doors open. Some elevator maintenance companies report that nearly 75 percent of their service calls are for malfunctioning door operators. Doors aren’t the only source of frequent problems. It is important to track the frequency and costs of all problems. Rising service call frequencies, increasing maintenance costs — all serve as early warning signs that problems are increasing. Underground Parking - Often thought as something pretty simple, underground parking gets a fair bit of exposure that you may not think of. Continued at http://kyegrace.com/ViewBlog/261/