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After three years of consultations, studies, and legal drafting, the Ontario Provincial Legislature's introduced the long-awaited Bill 106: a set of official amendments to the decade-and-a-half-old Condo Act.
While the bill's not yet been called for second reading—and that means there's lots of time for debate, amendments, committee consultation, and bluntly, the possibility of the whole thing just getting scrapped—here's our take on what the potential Condo Act changes will mean for your day-to-day life as the tenant of a condo building, or a landlord leasing out a condominium unit.
For the Landlords
While renting out your condo isn't yet part of the review, there are a few ideas in the proposed bill that will make the other end of running your investment condo—dealings with your condo board and corporation—that much easier.
Dispute resolution services will be introduced in the form of the new Condo Authority, an arm's-length agency to help resolve any issues between condo boards and unit owners. While you may love your condo board or hate them, the possibility of getting caught in a tangle of rules that lead to legal action—and costs—will go down precipitously with their proposed solution of a tribunal to hear issues between buildings and unit owners.
The other feature of the Condo Authority that might be really interesting to landlords is its function as an informational service. Part of the new Condo Authority's proposed work would be to educate condo owners about their rights, responsibilities, and options when it comes to day-to-day living, legally speaking. While there's no word yet as to how that will interact with condo owners who rent out their units, a one-stop source of information can only be a bonus for the landlord, making it that much easier to meet your responsibilities to your condo board and corporation—and be a good landlord to your tenants.
Even better, the new agency won't increase your overhead too much: The funding for the new Condo Authority will come largely from developers and a $1/month levy on owners, costing you about $12 a year.
The other major feature of the bill is a compulsory mechanism for licensing condo managers. After a few high-profile frauds involving condo management companies, this is a change that can only help condo landlords, who rely on solid property management from external companies and the board to keep the value of their own units competitive. Licensing condo managers will potentially help keep condo fees low through good management practices, maintain common areas well, and just take a little of the static out of the owner-property manager interaction.
What's more, it'll punish unethical or illegal behaviour from property managers with stiff fines—up to $50,000 or two years less a day in prison for individuals, and up to $250,000 for firms—that'll help provide incentive to curb nasty behaviour.
A third, crucial part of the proposed amendments is a clarification on who's responsible for what when it comes to repairs and maintenance for the building. Stricter definition of those responsibilities will help you plan potential repairs, budget appropriately, and not take on repairs that are actually the building's job in case something important breaks.
For the Tenants
While the main variable for condo tenants is always—and will still be—the working relationship with their landlord, there are a few proposals in Bill 106 that could make life that much easier for the condominium tenant.
Just as the mechanism for licensing condo managers helps landlords, condo tenants will have an easier ride: It'll be that much harder to pull shady business around repairs, and the hopeful result will be more affordable units in better-maintained buildings.
Likewise, the clarifications around maintenance and repair responsibilities will be a big help, as that'll mean fewer situations where you're stuck without a working shower while the condo board and your landlord haggle over who's supposed to foot the bill.
A smaller aspect of the bill, a requirement to have condo projects or developers list key documents, condo by-laws and rules, and more on publicly accessible websites, could make the process of knowing what you're getting into before you sign that lease—and keeping up with the rules of living in your building—that much easier.
While the changes to condo living that these amendments will potentially bring in are very much geared to owners and their relationships with property managers and boards, the new Condo Act amendments look like they'll grease the wheels of condominium living just enough to be noticeable. Better service and communication for slightly lower costs—and a little more space to build trust between everyone in the condo living interaction—will only make the landlord or tenant role easier, and unmuddy the water for everyone.
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