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Renting out a condo party room to the public?

Tranquillity

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Our condo has a fantastic party room downtown that hasn't been used for years. The fee is too high for most residents while the rooftop and oversized private patios provide the residents with plenty of room for their friends.

As the condo is looking for additional income, we may investigate the following options
- Turn the party room into a condo/office and rent it out
- Rent the party room to the public

Have you rented out a party room and what type of revenues can you get? How do you deal with security? Where do you rent it out - Airbnb?
 
Our condo has a fantastic party room downtown that hasn't been used for years. The fee is too high for most residents while the rooftop and oversized private patios provide the residents with plenty of room for their friends.

As the condo is looking for additional income, we may investigate the following options
- Turn the party room into a condo/office and rent it out
- Rent the party room to the public

Have you rented out a party room and what type of revenues can you get? How do you deal with security? Where do you rent it out - Airbnb?
If you change the common elements or assets of your Condo you need agreement from owners, under S 97 of the Act you need 66% approval. Also if you create a rental space it is likely to change (or at least impact) your tax-free status and if I lived in a condo building I would be VERY wary of having a short-term rental suite there and opening it to outside parties would be equally worrying. If the room is not being used because 'the fee is too high' the obvious answer is to reduce the fee.
 
I agree, reduce the fee. I wanted to rent out the (small) party room in my condo just for the 6-8 or us, but the fee was a bit ridiculous and we went to a pub instead. I don't know if making more money for the condo is more important than to actually have the amenity use. Perhaps raise the deposit, but lower the fee?
 
I agree, reduce the fee. I wanted to rent out the (small) party room in my condo just for the 6-8 or us, but the fee was a bit ridiculous and we went to a pub instead. I don't know if making more money for the condo is more important than to actually have the amenity use. Perhaps raise the deposit, but lower the fee?

We ask for a $200 damage deposit which will be raised after we renovate our party room next year. We also charge a non-refundable cleaning fee of $40. We would NEVER rent out our party room as it is used frequently for, among other things, our library, in-house book club, bridge night, euchre night, condo-wide parties (e.g. holiday) etc. Then, of course, there's security etc.
 
We ask for a $200 damage deposit which will be raised after we renovate our party room next year. We also charge a non-refundable cleaning fee of $40. We would NEVER rent out our party room as it is used frequently for, among other things, our library, in-house book club, bridge night, euchre night, condo-wide parties (e.g. holiday) etc. Then, of course, there's security etc.
Buildings all have their own 'vibe' - here we stopped asking for a deposit a while ago as it was more trouble than it was worth. If an owner/resident causes damage (which happened once in 5 years) we can charge it back to them under our Rules. A deposit of, say, $200 will generally not go far on covering damage claims anyway. We are a smaller building without a resident manager/office so actually dealing with deposit cheques was a hassle. It works here, it may well not work elsewhere.
 
What happens should a party room be used for an election poll place or places? Does money change hands?

Why not? If there are enough people in a condo to constitute a polling station population quota, or whatever the term is, why not put it in a place where it's easy to access and encourages turnout?
 
I'm curious about the arrangement of the recently opened Lavelle Restaurant and Lounge with the Thompson phase 2 condos.
Lavelle takes up the entire rooftop pool & patio, cabanas and the indoor space which has been turned into a bar and lounge.
The restaurant and bar is open to the public, but to use the pool will incur a $200 annual membership fee for non-residents (residents could use the pool at anytime, except when a private event is being held). The restaurant also rents out their space for events for the neighbouring Thompson Hotel.

I'm sure the hotel and restaurant contributes heavily to the maintenance and pays high rent for the rooftop space and pool.
This would appeal to those who like having hotel-style amenities in their own building, but I personally wouldn't want to share my amenity spaces with the public even if it means it will help cover its maintenance -- it has been problematic at times at the Thompson and I'm sure it will be no different at phase 2 of the Thompson.

Here's a peek at Lavelle:
http://www.blogto.com/restaurants/lavelle-toronto
 
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I'm curious about the arrangement of the recently opened Lavelle Restaurant and Lounge with the Thompson phase 2 condos.
Lavelle takes up the entire rooftop pool & patio, cabanas and the indoor space which has been turned into a bar and lounge.
The restaurant and bar is open to the public, but to use the pool will incur a $200 annual membership fee for non-residents (residents could use the pool at anytime, except when a private event is being held). The restaurant also rents out their space for events from the neighbouring Thompson Hotel.

I'm sure the hotel and restaurant contributes heavily to the maintenance and pays high rent for the rooftop space and pool.
This would appeal to those who like having hotel-style amenities in their own building, but I personally wouldn't want to share my amenity spaces with the public even if it means it will help cover its maintenance -- it has been problematic at times at the Thompson and I'm sure it will be no different at phase 2 of the Thompson.

Here's a peek at Lavelle:
http://www.blogto.com/restaurants/lavelle-toronto
There are two possibilities. The most likely is that the developers retained ownership of the 'restaurant and lounge floors' and there is some sort of shared services arrangement with the Condo Corporation, which runs the other parts of the building. An arrangement like this could include a legal agreement that residents get discounts.. This seems to be the norm for newer buildings. The alternative, more common in the past, is that the 'restaurant and lounge floors' are actually part of the Condo Corporation and pay x% of the running costs of the whole building. Here too the operators of the commercial floors could offer residents a discount but more likely 'informally'.
 
Turning it to office building and rent it out is best option to get high income every month.
That is not how the Condominium Act works; a Condo Board has the legal obligation to maintain the common elements and if the Board decides to cease offering a service or re-purpose common elements space they need to get the approval of the owners. (Section 97 of the Act reads, in part "...the corporation shall not make a substantial addition, alteration, improvement to the common elements, a substantial change in the assets of the corporation or a substantial change in a service that the corporation provides to the owners unless the owners who own at least 662/3 per cent of the units of the corporation vote in favour of approving it.")
 
That is not how the Condominium Act works; a Condo Board has the legal obligation to maintain the common elements and if the Board decides to cease offering a service or re-purpose common elements space they need to get the approval of the owners.

It can even be more involved than that. Sometimes specific amenities are listed in the zoning documents and require a zoning change to convert to another amenity.

We're currently trying to decide if an outdoor putting green (zoning) can have obstacles (chairs, fountains, garden bits) and still be an outdoor putting green.
 
If you change the common elements or assets of your Condo you need agreement from owners, under S 97 of the Act you need 66% approval. Also if you create a rental space it is likely to change (or at least impact) your tax-free status and if I lived in a condo building I would be VERY wary of having a short-term rental suite there and opening it to outside parties would be equally worrying. If the room is not being used because 'the fee is too high' the obvious answer is to reduce the fee.

DSC How would you go about renting a party room in a condo where you do not reside?
 

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