Two minutes on the agenda saves a year of email threads
Every fall, strata councils across BC and Manitoba sit down to set budgets — and graffiti almost never makes the agenda until the week a tag shows up on the parkade door. Then it becomes what it never needed to be: an emergency vote, a scramble for quotes, a debate about who pays. Graffiti Medic works with councils and property managers across both provinces, and the well-run buildings all handle it the same way: they settle three questions once, in advance.
The three questions to settle at (or before) the AGM
- Who authorizes removal? If every tag needs a council resolution, every tag stays up for weeks — and lingering graffiti invites more. A standing authorization (to the property manager, or a pre-approved vendor arrangement) means removal starts the day it's spotted
- What's budgeted? Per-incident removals are unpredictable — a quiet year costs nothing, a bad year blows the line item. A fixed-fee maintenance program converts graffiti into one flat, budgetable amount the treasurer can defend in thirty seconds
- Who documents it? Common-property graffiti touches bylaw compliance and, for major damage like etched glass, insurance. Both need dated before/after photos. Decide now whose file they live in — ours come with every job
Who's actually responsible? (The short version)
Exterior walls, fences and parkades are almost always common property — the strata corporation's to maintain, not any one owner's. Municipal bylaws point the same direction: in Vancouver, By-law 7343 gives owners 10 days after a notice; in Winnipeg, graffiti falls under the Neighbourhood Liveability By-law with escalation to compliance orders. A notice addressed to the strata lands on the council's desk with a clock running — which is exactly why the authorization question matters more than it looks. Our who-pays guide covers the grey zones, including limited common property.
The motion that ends the conversation
One sentence, brought to the AGM: "The corporation authorizes [manager/council designate] to arrange graffiti removal on common property within 48 hours of discovery, under the approved maintenance budget." Buildings on a recurring program go one better — tags are usually gone before an owner emails about them, which is the cheapest complaint you'll never receive. If your council wants numbers for the budget package, send photos of your building's exposure points and we'll quote both models honestly: per-incident and fixed-fee.