Ontario condominium survey
Give your feedback to the Ontario government if you've had any positive, or negative, experiences with condominiums. The survey, launched in July, contains questions such as whether you've ever had a dispute with a condominium board of directors, or whether you're satisfied with the funding of the condominium reserve fund for your building.
I think it's helpful that the government is asking current condominium owners about their experiences. But, it's people who've never bought a condominium before that need to be educated, not people who already own one. You need consumer awareness of how a condominium works (and whether it suits your lifestyle) before you buy a condominium, not after the fact.
From my perspective, one limitation of the current legislation is that condominium boards are not required to disclose much detail relating to problems, or to possible special assessments. A prospective purchaser may be advised that there is an issue in the status certificate, but trying to get further information about the problem- how it's being addressed, and how much it's going to cost to fix- is often very difficult.
Kerry Fox is a real estate lawyer practising in Nepean, Ontario.
Comments(0)