Maintenance Fees
Maintenance Fees are determined at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) with the owners of the Strata Corporation adopting a budget through a majority vote.
Strata maintenance fees are used to finance the operation of the strata corporation to help protect the overall investment and enjoyment of the living space. Your specific monthly fee is based on your percentage of ownership or unit entitlement.
Maintenance Fees cover such items as Insurance, Utilities, Garbage Collection, Landscaping, Baywest Management Fees, and General Repair and Maintenance and contingency reserve funds for major expenditures like roof replacement.
Maintenance Fees are due on the first of each month and are handled by Baywest as a service to the Strata Corporation.
PAYING YOUR STRATA FEES WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?
1. ONLINE BANKING
Online banking gives you complete control over your strata fee payments and the assurance that your strata fees will be paid on time every month. You can eliminate stamps, envelopes and paperwork – it’s the green way to pay! And there is no need to inform us if you change banks or bank accounts – you choose which account to pay from.
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Follow these simple steps to set up online strata fee payments:1. Sign onto your online banking site. 2. Go to the bill payment option. 3. Add Baywest Management Corp as a Payee. 4. You will be asked to provide an ID number. Your ID number is a combinaion of your strata plan and strata lot numbers. S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Fill in the blueblanks with your strata plan number. Fill in the orange blanks with your strata lot number.Do not use your suite number. If your strata lot is only 1 or 2 digits put zeros, not Oh’s, in the first blanks. See the examples on the right. |
Example #1:
Strata Plan VR1, Strata Lot 1 S 0 0 0 0 V R 1 0 0 0 1 0 Example #2: Strata Plan BCS012, Strata Lot 12 S 0 B C S 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 Example #3: Strata Plan NW1234, Strata Lot 1034 S 0 N W 1 2 3 4 0 1 0 3 4 Example #4: Strata Plan LMS1234, Strata Lot 120 S L M S 1 2 3 4 0 0 1 2 0 Example #5: Strata Plan K120, Strata Lot 103 S 0 0 0 K 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 3 |
5. Enter your payment amount and payment date. Please note that your strata fees are due on the 1st of each month and it will take 1 to 3 business days for your payment to reach us. As your strata most probably assesses late penalties on payments received after the 1st, we suggest you set the payment date around the 26th of each month for payment the following month.
6. For added convenience we highly recommend you set your strata fee up as a recurring payment.
7. Follow any other instructions required by your financial institution and you are done.
You now have complete control over your strata fee payments and the peace of mind of knowing that your strata fees will be paid on time each month.
Any questions or problems? Just give our Accounts Receivable Helpdesk a call, toll free from anywhere, at 1-877-585-4411.
Its been our pleasure to assist you in streamlining one more thing in your busy day.
2.PERSONALLY APPROVED PAYMENTS – PAP
By signing up for Personally Approved Payments you are authorizing your bank to transfer a specific amount of money to the strata corporation’s bank on the 1st of each month. Once in place the monthly transfer will occur automatically and if your strata fees change, your monthly deduction will automatically change as well.
Follow these steps to set up Personally Approved Payments:
1. Complete the enclosed Pre-authorized Payment Service Agreement and return it, along with a VOID cheque, to our office. You may mail, fax or email the information to us. Our contact information is at the bottom of the form.
2. Remember to let us know if you make any changes to your banking arrangements.
Any questions or problems? Just give our Accounts Receivable Helpdesk a call, toll free from anywhere, at 1-877-585-4411.
3.POST DATED CHEQUES
Post dated cheques are a more time consuming and complicated way to pay your strata fees. Its suitable for owners that do not have computer access or do not like auto payments. It requires an owner to write out 12 cheques each year and to stay on top of fiscal year and strata fee changes.
Follow these steps to pay your strata fees by post dated cheques:
1. Determine the fiscal year of your strata corporation.
2. Write out 12 cheques dated for the 1st of each month and payable to your Strata Plan number. Examples of your Strata Plan number might be BCS 1234, LMS 2345 or KAS 4332.
3. Mail or drop off the cheques to our office. Our address is Baywest Management, Central Accounting Office, 13468 77th Avenue, Surrey, B.C., V3W 6Y3. If you are delivering your cheques in person you are welcome to stop in at any of our offices.
4. Make a note on your calendar as to when the cheques will run out to ensure you do not inadvertently fall behind on your strata fee payments.
5. If you have an Annual General Meeting coming up its best to send in only 3 cheques for the upcoming fiscal year as, once the AGM has been held and the new fees confirmed, you can write 9 cheques for the new amount and send in 1 make up cheque to cover the shortfall of the 3 cheques you sent previously.
6. Please note that if you live in a brand new strata, one that has just been built, you will be paying one strata fee amount during the interim period and another strata fee amount once the fiscal year starts. Your cheques will therefore need to be adjusted once the fiscal year starts.
Between changeovers in fiscal years, interim periods for new stratas, and AGMs held after the fiscal year has finished you almost need to be an Accountant to keep on top of how much to pay and when. We therefore suggest you consider Online Payments or Personally Approved Payments to streamline your strata fee payments.
