Leaky condo loans months away: email
Owners of leaky condos in B.C. may have to wait several more months before they can get loans to cover the cost of repairs, according to an email sent by the B.C. Homeowner Protection Office.
The HPO was created B.C. government after the leaky condo crisis of the 1990s, to provide interest-free loans to owners who couldn't raise money for the expensive repairs any other way. An investigation blamed the leaks on poor construction and inadequate building codes.
CBC News obtained an email issued last week by the chief operating officer of the HPO, Bob Maling, that said financial help may still be months away.
The email advised that the HPO still doesn't have a definitive answer when loan funding will be available, and the HPO hopes "to provide a clear response within the next couple of months."
Condo owners frustrated
But Linda Soloshy, president of the strata council at a leaky condo complex in Victoria, says she was giving a similar response by the HPO last month.
'Our owners have no idea what they should be doing right now, no idea where that leaves them," she said.' — Linda Soloshy, strata council president
Owners of units in her building planned to begin repairs last month but had to put the project on hold after staff at the HPO stopped processing loan applications or even communicating with the loan applicants without notice earlier this year.
Soloshy said the condo owners are finding the whole process very frustrating.
"They're concerned that they're still not being told that help is on the way.… They do not know where to go. Our owners have no idea what they should be doing right now, no idea where that leaves them," she said.
Without the loans, owners may have to live through another soggy B.C. winter before repairs can begin next spring, Soloshy said
No response from HPO
The HPO didn't respond to an interview request from CBC News.
But in June, B.C. Minister of Housing Rich Coleman said the HPO has run out of money because of the economic downturn and the agency has stopped processing loan applications.
Coleman said the HPO had applied for more money from the government and hinted things would be back to normal in a "week or so."
New Democrat housing critic Shane Simpson said the government of Premier Gordon Campbell seems to have entered a state of paralysis and is hiding from the general public.
"The Campbell government should step in and provide people with certainty, but instead, they are once again sitting back as spectators," said Simpson in a statement released on Monday.