Hi,
What is the existing kitchen floor type? Tile? Wooden? In our block the kitchen tiles from incorporation are fixed to the concrete slab, and therefore are regarded as OC responsibility. Now when you rip them up and put something else down, the maintenance and upkeep of that floor should really become the current (and future) owners responsibility for maintenance and replacement.
The issue our SM (and executive of which I am Secretary for 12 years) has is that in the years to come- who knows what is original, and what has been renovated? (20 year old block so many already done). Yes you can dig up a ‘Strata Renovation Application’ from the OC records; but the only way of truly knowing (for potential future owner, and for the current OC) is to have the bylaw added. Which puts future liability for maintenance and replacement on the current lot owner.
It is for this reason that our strata manager ‘requires’ anyone on our block (since 2016 anyway), to also stump up the $1200 for the bylaw add. I’ve seen some truly inferior DIY Renovations. Owner sells 3 months later. Then in 18 months new tiles in bathroom start coming up, showers leak etc. Becomes a huge and costly sh*t fight between OC and new owner. Your SM is just doing the right thing by present and future building owners.
I know it add $$ to your reno personally. But this pales into the potential costs to the OC (and hikes in strata fees) in the future. The last couple of renovator bylaws we (the OC) have gone halves with the lot owners as we have updated some of the OC bylaws at the same time (more detailed by laws on pets, parking etc).
Cheers, R