Regulations for the New Condominium Act: An Update on Industry Consultations

The Ontario Government has recently been in consultation with leading professionals in the Condominium Industry, including our very own Nancy Houle, in preparing Regulations that will be introduced under the amended Condominium Act. These changes will affect all condo corporations.

Nancy was invited to Toronto to meet with government representatives interested in obtaining input and guidance for developing the Regulations, which will play a significant and important role once the new Act is in effect.

Although participants were asked to keep the discussions confidential for now, Nancy has reported that the meeting was engaging and exciting. She looks forward to seeing the impact of these discussions in the final proposed Regulations.

To recap from our previous blog posts, some of the many issues that the Regulations will address include:

• Permitted reserve fund expenditures and “major repairs”
• Reserve fund studies
• Adequacy of reserve funds
• Requirements of developers to disclose certain information on condominium sales websites
• Thresholds for “material change” in protections for buyers
• The types of disputes that fall within the jurisdiction of the new Condominium Authority Tribunal
• Mediation and Arbitration procedures
• Basic standard unit definition where there is no by-law
• Proxy forms
• Off-budget spending margins and requirements for notices to owners
• Issues that may have to be addressed in Status Certificates
• Requirements for communications to owners
• New requirements respecting record-keeping and access to records
• Directors’ training and disclosure obligations
• Licensing requirements for managers.

We will have further updates for our readers as soon as possible!