Wakefield Beach

[doondog]

(10-14-2013, 09:53 AM)Skook Wrote: doondog, welcome to VanPeak!

As a former owner, your experiences at Wakefield Beach and what you have and can share with us is invaluable and we thank you for it. Please, by all means feel free to post in the Wakefield Beach thread that I have started at anytime if you would like to expand on what you have written so far or build on what I have written to date. If there is any info that needs to be corrected, please do not hesitate to do that, too...LOL Those actual selling prices would be interesting to see and if you are able to post them there, that would be great.

It is sad to read about your strata management experiences - it's a big roll of the dice and so very few seem to function well.

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Thank you for the welcome Skook. Over the next few days I will post some of the information I have which was taken directly from the BC Assessment Rolls at the time when the actual Land Titles conveyance sale price was able to be viewed. It won't be for all units in both strata corporations but I will dig out what I have in any event and share this. When we were first drawn to the development we were only days away from committing to the purchase of one of the duplex homes where our total outlay including GST then and LTT was going to be slightly more than one million dollars. Today as you know an identical duplex is now priced at $535K as a result of the bankruptcy proceedings against an owner which individual also owns 6490 Ember Place now priced in the low $420+ range. Bankruptcy proceedings or not, the values there overall are profoundly undermined by other matters beyond this unique individual situation. It is almost a two for one sale compared to our own original price consideration. This particular unit on Ember Place was never owner occupied to my knowledge and rented only for a short period of time to tenants. Some owners in both complexes tried or still try to rent their homes for Vacation Rentals which results in a transient ebb and flow of strangers but the SCRD does have an enforceable bylaw preventing these rental periods and occupancies for anything less than one month at a time but only if they receive formal complaints in this regard. A specific business license is also required as a result in most applications. We did eventually purchase a home after all in the second phase which had a very self serving council of three members then all attempting to secure the Common Property lawn boulevard directly in front of their own bungalows on the front row and change its designation to Limited Common Property which effectively would have completely excluded all other owners from its usage and access to the beach directly through the development that would have resulted in having to reply upon the public access entrance only. It is possible this was resurrected by the council again after we sold and as a result any prospective purchaser should pay close attention to this. It took the threat of legal action to prevent the council from doing so in the first instance. I was not displeased to see that one of these owners subsequently sold their beachfront bungalow at a substantial loss themselves. Still a nice spot but I would encourage anyone interested in purchasing to very carefully and thoroughly read and read again in between the lines at least 36 months of council meeting and AGM minutes from both Strata Corporations as they have reciprocal cost sharing and usage agreements between them for pedestrian walk through traffic, sanitary sewage pumping station and back up power for it etc., but more importantly the underground services for the Geothermal System all homes there rely upon and the lengthy contract and costly maintenance and ongoing payment agreement for this.

The views are beautiful though and when it rains those curved metal rooftops transmit through and into the homes a sound that is pleasant for most to listen to but not for all perhaps if you don't appreciate the sound akin to someone tap dancing on your roof. You would also want to predict that sooner or later those garden rooftops could be an expensive repair/replacement expenditure however hopefully the now legislated Strata Property Act Deficiency Inspection Reports and long term funding provision for major matters such as this are also clearly identified for prospective purchasers though the Strata Corporations have until the end of this year to complete this undertaking, so buyer beware otherwise until then.