Licensing of Condominium Managers-Restrictions on Managers Who Have a Limited Condominium Management Licence (Blog No. 3 in a Series)

According to the draft regulations, what are the restrictions on managers who have a LIMITED condominium management licence?

 As described in my previous blogs on this topic, condominium managers will need to obtain one of the following:

(a)   A limited licence (for applicants with up to 2 years of condominium management experience).

(b)   A transitional general licence (for applicants with more than 2 years of condominium management experience, who have not yet satisfied the higher education requirements for a general licence).

(c)   A general licence (for applicants with more than 2 years of condominium management experience, who have satisfied the higher education requirements for a general licence).

The limits on a Manager holding a limited licence

According to the draft regulations, a limited licensee can only provide condominium management services “under the supervision” of a general licensee or transitional general licensee.   The supervising licensee:

• must oversee the work of the limited licensee;
• must be readily available to assist the limited licensee (although not necessarily in the same location as the limited licensee); and,
• is responsible for the work that is approved by the supervising licensee.

In addition, a limited licensee can only provide the following services “with the prior approval of the supervising licensee”:

•  Entering into contracts on behalf of a client; and,
•  Managing, controlling or disbursing a client’s general funds.

Limited licensees cannot provide the following services (with or without approval of their supervising licensees):

• Signing status certificates; and,
• Managing, controlling or disbursing a client’s reserve fund accounts.

Based on the foregoing, there’s a clear distinction between “supervision” and “approval”.   “Approval” is only required for certain specific tasks.  As I read the regulations, supervision (ie. for most tasks, when specific approval is not required) means “overseeing” the work of the limited licensee and also being “readily available to assist”.   But it’s not clear what “overseeing” may entail.   Will this require regular meetings with the limited licensee?   Will this require written tracking or logging of the management activities for each client (with the logs to be reviewed by the supervising licensee)?  Will this require that the supervising licensee review all Board Meeting Minutes and Management Reports, followed by meetings or teleconferences between the supervising and limited licensees?  Again, it’s not absolutely clear.

Stay tuned to Condo Law News for more blogs about the draft regulations under the Condominium Management Services Act, 2015.