by Tanja Rosteck, Solution Explorer Content Strategist
In my last blog post, I introduced our Continuous Improvement strategy and how we use your feedback to make the Solution Explorer even better.
I’m pleased to report that we just finished a Continuous Improvement cycle for the Strata Solution Explorer. We made some content changes based on your feedback, as well as input from the CRT’s Vice Chair – Strata. The changes were loaded into the site on October 3, 2017.
Here’s an overview of what’s changed:
– We heard some frustration about wanting to skip exploring and go straight to making a CRT claim. But exploring your issue can help you discover important information and self-help tools. And if you’re a strata owner or tenant, you must have a hearing with your strata council before you can make a CRT claim. This is required under the Strata Property Act (section 189.1). The Solution Explorer is designed to guide you to CRT intake only if you’ve already had a council hearing. We improved the on-screen instructions about this.
– We also heard some confusion about where to start if your dispute has more than one issue, or if your issue isn’t listed. For more than one issue, we recommend exploring the most important one first. Remember that you’re free to explore as many issues as you want, at any time. If you decide to make a claim, you can do so from the issue that you think best fits your dispute. We improved the on-screen instructions about this.
– Strata councils can now make a CRT claim against a property manager (or strata management company), utility, or other service provider. These claims actually fall under the jurisdiction of small claims contracts, not strata. The Solution Explorer will guide you to the right place to make your claim. (Soon we’ll be streamlining this process, so you can start the claim right from your strata exploration. Stay tuned!)
– We improved several information sheets, including “Having a Hearing With the Strata Council” for owners and tenants. Improved documents now have a “Last Reviewed or Updated” date in the document footer.
– NEW External Resource link added to the “CRT Decisions” database. You might be curious whether any CRT decisions have been made about disputes like yours!
– NEW content added for strata owners and tenants > I have an issue with a property manager or other service provider.
– Content areas we’ve flagged for future development: Common property issues for strata owners and tenants; disputes within small stratas; and issues with bullying or harassment in stratas.
– Minor wording improvements throughout.
That’s it for this edition of the Solution Explorer Quarterly Update. See you at the end of December, for our first continuous improvement report on the small claims Solution Explorer!