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COVID-19: What About the Status Certificates?

What does the COVID-19 crisis mean for your status certificates? Here’s our advice.

We don’t see any indication, yet, that the COVID-19 crisis will generally cause Ontario condominium corporations to suffer common expense increases. This will vary from one condo to the next. Some condos might in fact experience a surplus, due to shutting down parts of the common elements, postponing meetings, etc.

HOWEVER: Some condos may indeed anticipate an increase (due to the crisis) because of increased cleaning costs, increased management costs, increased staffing costs, etc. This is something to be considered on a condo-by-condo basis. In cases where an increase is indeed considered a real risk, something should be mentioned in Paragraph 12 of the status certificates (as soon as this risk becomes apparent). Any anticipated deficit must of course also be mentioned in Paragraph 9 of the status certificates.

In conclusion: In cases where excess expenses are anticipated, wording (for a sub-paragraph in Paragraph 12 of the status certificates) might be:

It appears that the COVID-19 crisis may cause the condominium corporation to incur expenses beyond the current budget (see also Paragraph 9 in relation to the anticipated budget deficit). We won’t know the precise amount of the resulting anticipated deficit (and the resulting required increase in common expenses) until the crisis is behind us.

Stay tuned to Condo Law News to keep up to date on the latest developments in condominium law!