Strata police
Last week, when I showed up at a small strata unit garden, I had a simple task: plant two boxwoods (Buxus) salvaged from another part of the site. And as soon as I started digging the security camera picked me up. Minutes later the family emerged out of their unit wondering what I was doing and why no one had told them about the boxwood planting. They all had a weird look on their faces, as if I was peddling forced sterilization.
Common areas
Technically speaking, owners of strata-type properties (multi-family complexes in British Columbia) only own the actual unit. The outside common spaces are strata owned and subject to strata oversight.
Now, this family did have lots of bare space in their front garden. But in their defence they do plant annuals every summer. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by retired home gardeners. You can tell because there is tons of color around, not always well designed.
These home gardeners put pressure on their neighbours to beautify their units. Except some people are busier than others. In this case, the family is away a great deal in summer because their daughter plays baseball. So, there is no time to care for elaborate flower arrangements.
Let’s not panic
I did my job and planted the two boxwoods. Then I gave the soil a quick rake and watered the small shrubs in. Then I told the surprised family not to panic. They still had room for their annual planting next summer. And, if they detested the new boxwoods, we could always claim transplant shock and toss them into green waste.
Strata rules
When you buy a strata property you can expect a ton of rules. In this blog post we had a family which only plants summer annuals, which isn’t good enough for their retired home gardener neighbours. Home gardeners hate to see bare soil.
And so the family received two salvaged boxwood shrubs without asking or agreeing to it. There, problem solved. Or is just another fight brewing?
