Leaky Condo: $78K - $200K assessment (split from the Realtor 1 subforum)

[chemgear]

I didn't want to clutter up Realtor 1's sub forum - just split this item out:

http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/loca...-face-big-bill

Owners like Dryden, meanwhile, are forced to just grin and bear through the added costs. She alone faces about $78,000 in repair expenses.

“I have to stay here,” she said. “I don’t have a choice.”


I think it was CBC radio that mentioned the assessments ranged up to $200,000. Anybody here live at that location?

[1stLand]

This sickens me. I feel bad for the owners.
I have never been inside this building before, but have driven past it many times and thought the amount of work being done on it was unusual.

[Hockeyguy15]

I could see a lot of people not affording this and having to foreclose...Not good at all.

[Misterpants]

A buddy of mine got out of there before the major clusterfata. Lucky guy. It was such a cool place too. It's just unfortunate it seems to have been built by people with less homebuilding skills than me! I feel bad for the people who have to pony up all that dough. It also makes me super glad I got out of the condo market. Yikes.

[Ace]

"

Bella Vista Condos, located just off 17th Avenue S.W. on 14A Street S.W., opened in 2003, and reports of water leakage quickly followed, said resident and condo board treasurer Jacquie Dryden.

If this quote is true I can't imagine how the builder, or new home warranty are not on the hook.

[burn_this_city]

Similar to the story in Fort Mac where they had to evacuate everyone in the middle of the night because the building may collapse at anytime. Those people are super screwed, no value in a property if no one can live in it. Worst part is, these shoddy developers seem to declare bankruptcy and re-appear under a different name.

[blankall]

Hopefully, they can recoup a lot of this cost from the developers. You see this all the time in Vancouver. Guys skip corners to get a condo development up. Turns out shoddy work leads to a huge assessment. The developers who have made an absolute killing then close up shop and there's noone to even go after.
'
Not sure what happened here, but there are a lot of crooks in the real estate injury who don't seem to feel to bad about potentially taking someone's life savings

[FlameOn]

Same thing happened to us when we moved out of a condo townhouse complex in hidden valley and we managed to get out before a potential $15k bill. Crappy thing is our building had absolutely no issue but we were going to be on the line to pay for other buildings repairs.

I hear there are some pretty bad cases out there... wasn't there a condo complex in Edgemont that had a crap load of mold because of bad stucco work? Costed people there almost $80k/unit to fix IIRC. Government really needs to have liability laws in place for problems caused by shoddy construction. With warranties being only a year nowadays and some things taking so much longer to find... rules really need to change to address this problem

[Shazam]

I got absolutely roasted on another forum for saying that structures were being built not to code, and that inspectors weren't doing their jobs...

Ah well.

[Julio]

I used to live just up the street from this place, and while it was being built the g'friend and I figured that it was due for some trouble. within a year or so of construction they were doing little stop gap repairs. Water didn't seem to drain right, always little pools on balconies and walkways, that sort of thing.

Things got worse for the retailers that front on 17th. Helia Sports was in there for about two years, and then got flooded out, and the space hasn't been rented since.

Geesh, first there is a killing/dismembering in the building, then the flooding. I've warned off at least 3 different people who were looking to buy there.

[Travis Munroe]

I also agree that the government needs to step in and play a much larger role.
I typically front the cost to have condo documents reviewed by a pro for my clients just so I can sleep at night knowing they are in a solid building. How these developers can sleep on a pile of cash knowing they screwed people is beyond me.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Julio

Geesh, first there is a killing/dismembering in the building, then the flooding. I've warned off at least 3 different people who were looking to buy there.

I remember hearing that rumor . . . do you recall the year that was? I've never been able to actually find a news report about that.

[Jedi Ninja]

Originally Posted by Shazam

I got absolutely roasted on another forum for saying that structures were being built not to code, and that inspectors weren't doing their jobs...

Ah well.

Just looking at the building on Google Streetview, there is no way I would ever have purchased there: stucco building, no eaves or overhang, mixed-type siding. It's like the poster child of the old Vancouver leaky condo crisis.

[Julio]

Originally Posted by chemgear

I remember hearing that rumor . . . do you recall the year that was? I've never been able to actually find a news report about that.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...13a2db8&k=6818

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Similar to the story in Fort Mac where they had to evacuate everyone in the middle of the night because the building may collapse at anytime. Those people are super screwed, no value in a property if no one can live in it. Worst part is, these shoddy developers seem to declare bankruptcy and re-appear under a different name.

Actually, the builder of the Bella Vista condos is Prism Developments. They're still around and selling condos. Their website is here: http://www.prismdevelopments.com/con...umma-manor.htm This is their newest development, but if you click on "past developments" you get Bella Vista.

(Just in case someone is interested in buying one from them.)

[Julio]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Actually, the builder of the Bella Vista condos is Prism Developments. They're still around and selling condos. Their website is here: http://www.prismdevelopments.com/con...umma-manor.htm This is their newest development, but if you click on "past developments" you get Bella Vista.

(Just in case someone is interested in buying one from them.)

I love how they say that Bella Vista 'quickly sold out'. It took them about 3 years to build it, and they were still selling condos at least a year after the first people moved in.

[WilsonFourTwo]

As a condo owner, this is my number one fear.....even more than Carnival Folk.

Insurance covers fire, theft, vandalism (etc), but builder incompetence and negligence isn't something you can prepare for.

[chemgear]

Hey Fotze actually started the thread about this years ago (well before I was ever here.)

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=20348

[COGENT]

Sadly this same thing happened to me. I've personally had to pay $30,000 in special assessments to date (over $180,000 for entire bill up to this point but I haven't received the most recent bill from our lawyer which tends to be about $10,000 each time we get one) and I'm not sure if we're done yet. We are suing the company that converted the building and the construction company that actually did the work (I don't want to give names incase it effects the lawsuit). We had to hire an Engineer firm to research the problems, document the work being done to fix it, and prepare a formal report for our lawyers.

I am literally stuck in my condo, nothing I can do about it. I considered foreclosing for a while but I'm hoping that my patients will pay off and hopefully I will make my money back one of these years.

I should mention we had the condo docs reviewed by professionals before buying. It's just horrible luck on my part.

[Travis Munroe]

Marda Loop area??? lol???