5 Questions to Ask Before Creating a New Strata Bylaw

As a council member, fostering the health, safety, and well-being of a strata corporation is of the utmost importance. While many homeowners are comfortable with council’s decisions that improve or enhance community living, others are not. Despite the value strata’s offer, residents are often frustrated with their community’s bylaws and rules.

Fortunately, bad bylaws and rules are entirely avoidable. Prevent them from surfacing in your community by examining their worth. The following are five crucial questions every council needs to ask before passing new bylaws, rules, and policies.

1. Does your community really need another bylaw or rule?

Creating new bylaws, rules, and policies may not always be helpful. Carefully consider each one and its short- and long-term implications. Often, new bylaws and rules may require other expenses, like fees for consulting with lawyers or changing governing documents—costing your strata corporation time and money.

Take a holistic approach and ask yourself what the potential bylaw, rule, or policy aims to accomplish. Can that goal be reached in another way, or is there an existing bylaw/rule that can be amended to meet the same objective? Similarly, educating homeowners about current expectations may be enough to solve the problem your bylaw or rule aims to fix. If you make efforts to correct any issues before jumping to new regulations, it can help build trust in the community and promote harmony.

2. Is the bylaw or rule allowed by your governing documents and current laws?

There are limits to what your strata can and can’t do. Every community must adhere to its governing documents and any applicable local, provincial, and federal laws. Failure to do so may open your Council to conflict, scrutiny, or legal trouble.

To avoid issues, council members must become familiar with governing documents and other limitations. Having a firm grasp on existing bylaws, rules, regulations, and powers will inform decisions, give context to future bylaws/rules changes, and provide the knowledge needed to proceed safely and professionally. When in doubt, seek guidance from your strata manager who can reach out to, attorneys, or other professional partners.

3. Is the new bylaw or rule clear, and can it be easily followed by your residents?

Bylaws and rules are often ignored because they’re unclear or confusing. Most homeowners are trying their best to be good neighbours and community members, and the bylaws/rules should support, not hinder, their efforts to live within the community’s expectations.

When proposing a bylaw or a rule, think about the tools, resources, and details needed to make that bylaw/rule easy to follow. For example, if you’re creating a bylaw/rule about paint colours for front doors, here are some additional questions you may want to ask first:

• Are we providing a list of approved colours?
• Are those colours available locally for purchase?
• Is the approval process for door colours straightforward and well thought out?
• Does the bylaw/rule explain things in plain language that’s easy to understand?
• How will we communicate the new bylaw/rule to homeowners?

4. Is the bylaw or rule objectively fair and reasonable?

Council members have a fiduciary responsibility to the community, and that applies to new bylaws, rules, and policies, too. Does the planned bylaw or rule benefit the entire community and not just a few individuals or homes? How you answer that question will tell you a lot about whether you should proceed with a bylaw or rule change.

Remember, all strata bylaws and rules, regulations, and policies can be challenged legally. The rationale behind any bylaw/rule has to be sound and fairly applied across the neighbourhood. Unfair bylaws or rules that target a single homeowner may get your neighbourhood in hot water. Always ensure you’re upholding your fiduciary responsibility, and when in doubt, consult your strata manager.

5. Will your council and management team be able to enforce the bylaw/rule easily?

Every good bylaw or rule needs a practical enforcement plan. Bylaws or rules that aren’t easily enforced are vulnerable to being ignored and broken, and without proper enforcement protocols, the council’s authority may be questioned. When considering potential policy enforcement, evaluate the structure for bylaws or rules, fees, and fines and make sure the current bylaws or rules are being fairly and uniformly enforced.

Also, don’t forget that your time is precious. If a bylaw or rule requires an unreasonable amount of time and effort to enforce, then it may not be appropriate for your community. For example, if you’re proposing a new weight limit for dogs, think about how it’d be enforced. Do council members plan on weighing each dog individually? Asking tough questions upfront will help you create bylaws or rules that can benefit your strata and residents for years to come.