Media

While the Ontario government continues to push legislation banning the vaping of medical marijuana in public places, including a condominium corporation’s common elements, there has been a large victory for medicinal pot users who wish to grow their own marijuana supply in their residential condominium units.

It’s Wednesday bridge night at the condo. The party room is bursting. No surprise there – the residents love bridge night. All the regulars are in attendance, or almost all of them. Mrs. Singh, normally a bridge night regular, isn’t there. Strange, she wasn’t there last week either and no one seems to have heard from her. Something doesn’t seem right; Mrs. Singh is elderly, lives alone, and is not known to travel anywhere for longer than a couple of days.

In this recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal, the court confirmed that the cost of installing or upgrading a security system can be recovered as a chargeback against the owner whose actions caused the condominium corporation to install the cameras.

Condominium boards routinely handle sensitive information. Whether arising from an owner’s request to access the records of the corporation or a desire to promote board transparency, board members face the predicament of discharging their statutory obligations while also protecting confidentiality. We set about answering the not-so-simple question: what can the board disclose?

The last few months have been a whirl- wind of activity for the Legislative Committee. The government’s actions culminated in the very important public announcements by the Minister of Government and Consumer Services (Hon. Tracy MacCharles) on July 25, 2017. Draft regulations relating to a portion of the reforms to the Condominium Act, 1998 (parts of the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 - Bill 106) were circulated in the early spring for public comment. These regulations focused only on governance matters and were broken down into four themes or topics. Previous articles in CondoVoice have reviewed these in-depth.

Shared facilities and shared facilities agreements (they go by several names, but I will refer to them as “SFAs”) have become an integral part of the condo community, but also a source of problems and conflicts.

Today, about 1.6 million Ontarians call a condominium home. As the popularity of condo living continues to grow, condominium owners, residents and directors face unique challenges– namely, making sense of condominium rules, and living in close quarters with others in a shared community.

While the condominium industry has justifiably been preoccupied with the long- awaited amendments to the Condominium Act, there are other important legislative changes coming that could impact condominiums. One example is the extensive amendments to the Employment Standards Act (ESA).

Many condominiums are constructed in re- purposed buildings. They have been constructed in old mills, office buildings, warehouses, school, churches etc. The results can be spectacular, with heritage aspects of the original building highlighted in the new Condominium. Unfortunately, some of these conversions have also put the unit- owners in spectacularly difficult financial positions because they have required very expensive repairs within a few years of turn-over; long before any significant funds could accumulate in the reserve fund.

By now, most of us have heard of Bill 106, Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015. This is an Act to amend the Condominium Act, 1998 and to enact the Condominium Management Services Act, 2015. The amendments to the Condominium Act, 1998 are a result of an extensive review of the Condominium Act, 1998 that was initiated by the Government of Ontario in 2012. The Condominium Management Services Act, 2015 will implement the requirement for the licensing of managers and management service providers (i.e. the management companies).

The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) officially opened its doors just seven months ago. It has been an extremely busy time for the condominium community and, in particular, for the CAO.

The other today one of the classic anthems of the hippie era came on the radio. You remember it the one where a young man laments the state of modern society: “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign.”

When boards of directors make decisions which they believe are for the greater good of the community, they can sometimes negatively impact some of the owners.