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Summary of Draft Regulations Under the Condominium Act, 1998 – Communication with Owners (and Mortgagees) “Information Certificates”

As we noted in a previous blog, the province has published the Proposed Regulations and a Summary of the first phase of the proposed new Regulations under the Condominium Act, 1998, as amended (“The Amended Act”).  This is the second in a series of blogs that we will be preparing in relation to the proposed changes.

In this Blog No. 2, I explore the following question: What are the “information certificates” that the condominium corporation is required to send to owners (and mortgagees)?

There is a new requirement for condominium corporations to provide owners (and mortgagees) with “information certificates”.

Section 26.3 of the Amended Act states: 

A corporation shall send to the owners,

(a) at least once every three months or at such other time periods as are prescribed, a certificate that is prepared in accordance with the regulations and that contains the statements described in clauses 76 (1) (d), (e) and (h), the certificate or memorandum described in clause 76 (1) (p) and all other information relating to the corporation as is prescribed; and

(b) at the prescribed times, a certificate that is prepared in accordance with the regulations and that includes all other prescribed information relating to the corporation. 

The summary confirms that there are three types of information certificates that condominium corporations will be required to provide to owners:

(a) Periodic Information Certificates (“PIC”) – to be sent twice per fiscal year with various information related to the corporation (address for service), insurance, finances, Board of Directors, reserve fund, etc.

(b) Information Certificate Update (“ICU”) – to be sent upon certain “trigger” events. These “trigger” events may include changes to the address for service of the Corporation, changes to insurance, board vacancies, etc.

(c) New Owner Information Certificate (“NOIC”) – to be sent to new owners of a condominium unit with the most recent PIC and ICU that was sent to owners.

This is a major change for condominium corporations and will likely involve additional work for the directors and/or managers.  These changes will assist in ensuring condominium owners are kept up to date with important information affecting the condominium.

There is a proposed exemption from the requirement to provide Information Certificates for small condominiums with less than 25 units.  The proposed exemption would allow small condominiums to obtain the consent of 80 percent of the owners to dispense with the requirements.

[Note: The Summary states that the ability to dispense with the requirement to distribute information certificates is possible if:  a turnover meeting has been held; the corporation has fewer than 25 units; or the owners of at least 80 percent of the units’ consent in writing.  However, the “or” should be an “and”. The draft regulations confirm that only corporations meeting all of the requirements can dispense with providing information certificates.]

The requirement for condominium corporations to provide information certificates may come into force as early as July 1, 2017.

Stay tuned for our next blog in this series which will review what the Summary has to say about Required Disclosure by Condominium Directors and Candidates.