Funding our roof replacements
Two years ago, in the 2024 Depreciation Report, Pacific Rim Appraisals predicted that all our fibreglass roof shingles will need to be replaced between six to nine years, which means four to seven years as of 2026. Numerous websites state that fibreglass roof shingles have a life expectancy of 15 to 25 years in British Columbia, particularly on Vancouver Island due to its climate. Based on this information and feedback from roofing contractors, we have to assume that we will need to replace all our roofs in the next six years or so.
Thank you to everyone who attended the SGM on May 3, 2026. We had lots of good discussion and voted to fund the replacement of three roofs this year from the Contingency Reserve Fund (CRF). Now we have to decide how we are going to fund the remaining eleven roofs that will need to be replaced over the next six years or so.
As discussed at the meeting, we can fund them through higher monthly fees or through special levies or a combination of slightly higher fees and occasional special levies. The survey below is to get a better sense of the owners’ desires. Please let Council know your preferences by answering the questions. When creating the next budget Council will take your responses into consideration and follow the wishes of the majority.
NB: The BC Strata Property Act does not provide a method to collect funds in which some owners pay a special levy and others pay higher monthly fees.
Budgeting
Currently, replacement of one roof will cost $35,000, so eleven roofs will be $385,000. Since we are looking at funding them over six years, we should add in another 10% for inflation, bringing the total we need to budget for to about $425,000.
If we choose to fund them only through collecting higher monthly fees, we will need to collect ~$200 per unit per month for six years. Since we already added $50/month to our fees (in 2024-25) to help pay for roofs, we should be able to fund our roofs by collecting an additional $150/month/unit for six years. However, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- If prices go up higher than anticipated, $150/month/unit will not be adequate, and we will have to revisit this amount.
- If roofs fail faster than anticipated and we haven’t collected sufficient funds quickly enough, we may have to do a special levy.
- If we collect fees higher than $150/month/unit, the roofing collection will be over a shorter period of time.
- If we collect fees lower than $150/month/unit, we will need to have some special levies to make up the difference.
Survey
Please answer the following questions (one set of responses per unit).