Condominium Corporation Entitled to General Compliance Order

Nancy Houle of our office successfully represented one of our condominium corporation clients in a recent Court dispute between the corporation and the owners of one of the units.

According to the Court’s decision, the owners had:

• delayed permission to allow the condominium corporation to replace an energy meter in the unit; and
• breached the condominium’s rules by doing the following: “they threw snow from their seventh floor terrace, they improperly stored their kayak , bicycles and skis, and they placed planters on their balcony”.

The Court said that the replacement of the energy meter did not constitute a “change” within the meaning of section 97 of the Condominium Act (and the corporation was accordingly entitled to replace the meter). The Court said: “The condominium complied meticulously with the Act. “The Court also said that one of the owners had “simply decided that the rules of the condominium were not going to apply to him“.

The Court ordered that the owners “pay all costs associated with the installation of the energy meter in their unit, as well as the back payment of water charges as calculated by the condominium“.

The Court also made a general Order that the owners comply with “all of the by-laws of the condominium including not throwing snow from the balcony, not storing a kayak, canoe or other item in the parking unit, and any other rules enacted by the condominium that apply to its unit owners“.

So, when an owner violates certain rules of a condominium, the condominium corporation may then be entitled to a general compliance order, stating that the owner must subsequently avoid all violations of the condominium’s by-laws and/or rules.

The decision in Ottawa-Carleton Standard Condominium Corporation No. 671 v. Friend can be found in Superior Court File No. 12-55105.