Concerns re: Proposed Condo Act Amendments – Concern #8

As mentioned in previous posts, Bill 106: Protecting Condominium Owners Act was introduced in the Ontario Legislature on May 27, and the full text of the bill is now available here. If passed, this bill will make crucial changes to the administration and operation of condominiums, which will affect both condo corporations and owners across Ontario.

Many of the proposed Amendments to the Condominium Act, 1998 (“the Act”) look very good to me. However, I do have some concerns. This is my blog post on Concern #8.

Concern #8 – The Resident-Elected Director

Currently, Section 51(6) of the Act calls for one of the Directors to be elected by the resident owners, in certain circumstances. The “Resident-Elected Director” was introduced in 2001 in order to prevent one majority owner (usually the declarant) from electing all of the directors. But I think it’s generally accepted that, in most cases, the provision has not served the intended purpose.

Under the proposed amendments, this provision would be retained (and renamed the “Non-Leased Voting Units” Directorship), but it would apply under different circumstances. In particular, it would apply if:

(a) Less than half of the units in the condominium are “non-leased voting units”; and
(b) One of the owners of the non-leased voting units has requested that there be an election to fill a position on the board reserved for voting by owners of non-leased voting units.

So, in summary, the amendments would retain this concept, but only in circumstances where the “non-leased voting units” are in the minority.

I’m concerned that this proposed amendment still won’t achieve the desired purpose, particularly because a majority owner could still have control of the Board in any event.

However, there is another possibility.

The general rule is that each owner has one vote per unit. However, for purposes of election or removal of directors, the total vote of an owner (and all persons and corporations affiliated with the owner) could perhaps be limited to a maximum of 10% of the total number of units.