88% of Jamaican Strata Corporations Fail Compliance Audits — Here's Why

When the Commission of Strata Corporations audits registered strata corporations in Jamaica, 88% are found to have violated multiple bylaws. Not one violation. Multiple.

This is not a sampling anomaly. It reflects a systemic governance failure across Jamaica’s approximately 1,300 registered strata corporations. Only about 12% file annual returns in any given year. Over three years, only about 10% managed to file. Roughly 90% operate without any meaningful oversight from the Commission.

The numbers tell a clear story: the vast majority of strata corporations in Jamaica are not meeting their legal obligations. The question is why — and what can be done about it.

What CSC Inspectors Find

The Commission of Strata Corporations conducts random inspections of registered corporations. As of 2025, corporations receive at least three months’ advance written notice before an inspection. That is a generous lead time. Yet the findings are consistently poor.

The most common violations, based on CSC compliance data:

Failure to file annual returns. This is the most widespread violation. Annual returns (Forms 13A, 13B, 13C) must be filed within 120 days of the corporation’s financial year end. They must include insurance documentation, executive committee appointments, AGM minutes, and financial accounts. Most corporations simply do not file.

Missing financial statements. The Act requires corporations to maintain detailed accounting records and produce income and expenditure statements. Many corporations either do not keep proper books or cannot produce statements in the required format. Spreadsheets maintained by a single board member who has since moved on are a common failure pattern.

Missing AGM minutes. Annual general meetings must be properly documented. Minutes must record attendance, business transacted, resolutions passed, and voting outcomes. Missing minutes make it impossible to prove that governance decisions were properly made — and they render annual returns incomplete.

Missing delinquent owner lists. Corporations are expected to track and report on proprietors who are behind on maintenance fee contributions. Without proper financial management systems, many corporations cannot produce accurate arrears reports.

Inadequate or missing insurance. The corporation must insure the building structure and common property. Without valid insurance documentation, proprietors cannot secure mortgages, and the corporation fails inspection immediately. A unanimous resolution from all proprietors is required to decline coverage — making insurance effectively mandatory.

By-law violations. 88% of audited corporations had by-law violations. This includes corporations that have never formally adopted or amended their by-laws, corporations that fail to enforce existing by-laws, and corporations where the actual rules in practice differ from what is registered.

Unauthorized structures on common property. Encroachments on common areas — unauthorized parking structures, building extensions, storage sheds — are frequently identified during physical inspections. The Commission has the power to order demolition of illegal extensions.

Poor maintenance of common areas. Inspectors assess the physical condition of shared infrastructure. Deteriorating hallways, neglected gardens, broken amenities, and deferred maintenance all indicate governance failure.

Why Corporations Fall Behind

The compliance failure rate is not primarily a problem of intent. Most board members want to do the right thing. The problem is structural.

Volunteer boards with no training. Executive committee members are typically proprietors who volunteer their time. Most have no background in corporate governance, financial management, or regulatory compliance. They are expected to navigate a complex legal framework that was designed with professional management in mind.

Complexity of forms and requirements. The annual returns process requires assembling insurance documentation, financial statements, meeting minutes, committee records, and audit reports into a cohesive filing. Each component has specific requirements. For a volunteer board member working in the evenings and weekends, this is a formidable administrative burden.

No centralised document management. Minutes are in one person’s email. Financial records are in another person’s spreadsheet. Insurance certificates are in a filing cabinet somewhere. When the person who maintained the records leaves the committee, institutional knowledge walks out the door.

Executive committee turnover. When committee membership changes — which it does at every AGM — the new members inherit a set of obligations they may not fully understand, along with a collection of scattered documents they may not be able to locate.

Lack of consequences — until now. Historically, the enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance have been limited. Most corporations that fail to file returns face no immediate penalty. This is changing. Proposed amendments would impose fines of up to JMD $500,000 for non-submission of annual returns.

The CSC Workshop Bottleneck

The Commission offers quarterly workshops on annual returns and basic bookkeeping. These sessions cover submission requirements, meeting procedures, invoicing, budgeting, and contribution apportionment. They include workbooks and practical exercises, and participants receive certificates of completion.

But each session is capped at 15 participants and is by invitation only. With approximately 1,300 registered strata corporations — each with multiple committee members who could benefit from training — quarterly sessions of 15 people cannot address the scale of the problem. At that rate, it would take years to reach even a fraction of the boards that need help.

This is not a criticism of the workshops. They are valuable. But they cannot be the primary mechanism for closing a compliance gap that affects nearly nine out of ten corporations.

The Consequences Are Real

Non-compliance is not just an administrative inconvenience. The cascading effects are concrete:

No compliance certificates. Without current compliance certificates, a corporation cannot apply for Power of Sale to recover arrears from non-paying proprietors. The enforcement mechanism for the corporation’s most pressing financial problem is unavailable.

Property values decline. A poorly governed, non-compliant corporation is a red flag for prospective buyers. Status certificates — available from the CSC for JMD $1,500 — reveal a corporation’s compliance history. Buyers and their attorneys are increasingly checking.

Mortgage accessibility. Banks and mortgage lenders consider corporation health when evaluating financing applications. Missing insurance, missing financial statements, and a history of non-compliance can affect individual proprietors’ ability to obtain or refinance mortgages.

Proposed financial penalties. The proposed JMD $500,000 fine for non-submission of annual returns would be a significant consequence for small and medium-sized corporations. The regulatory environment is tightening.

Personal liability. Executive committee members who preside over governance failures may face personal liability, particularly where financial mismanagement is involved.

What Compliance Actually Requires

The solution is not heroic effort from volunteer board members. It is consistent systems.

A strata corporation that maintains its compliance year-round — rather than scrambling when the CSC inspection letter arrives — needs:

• A compliance calendar that tracks every deadline automatically (120 days for annual returns, insurance renewal dates, registration renewal)
• Centralised document storage where AGM minutes, financial statements, insurance certificates, and committee records are always accessible — regardless of who is on the current committee
• Automated financial reporting that produces the statements required for annual returns directly from the corporation’s accounting data
• Meeting management tools that generate proper minutes, track resolutions, and record attendance
• Insurance tracking with renewal reminders and document storage
• Arrears management that flags accounts overdue by more than 30 days and tracks compliance certificate eligibility for Power of Sale

These are not luxuries. They are the basic infrastructure that every corporation needs to meet its legal obligations consistently.

Closing the Gap

The compliance crisis in Jamaica’s strata corporations is not inevitable. It is the predictable result of asking volunteer boards to manage complex legal obligations without adequate tools.

The CSC’s workshops are valuable but cannot scale. The proposed penalty increases will create urgency but will not, by themselves, build capability. What bridges the gap is technology purpose-built for the Jamaican regulatory environment — a platform that knows the forms, knows the deadlines, knows the requirements, and keeps every corporation on track every day of the year.

FiWi Community was built for exactly this purpose. Compliance dashboards, automated reminders, document management, financial reporting, and governance tools — all designed around the Registration (Strata Titles) Act and the obligations it imposes.

The 88% compliance failure rate is not a number that has to stay where it is. But it will not change with good intentions alone. It will change with better systems.