Ah, September in Ontario. The nights begin to cool, the school buses are back on the roads, the condo visitor parking lot is full of unauthorized cars…

It is that time of year again! Students return and for condominiums with many student rentals, it can be a difficult period to navigate. The fall season does not have to be about the fall of order and rules in your complex, so keep reading on to find out more ways to handle “student season”.

Disorderly Students: Sweeping assumption?

Some condominiums have a high rate of student rentals, and with that can come a whole lot of headaches for residents as well as property managers. However, most of these students are not problems themselves; I was a student once and it is easy to be blissfully unaware of restrictions, especially when you are visiting a friend at their place (or milling around a house party). It comes down to the personality of the renter, not necessarily their age. Many are hard-working, independent, quiet, and often looking for a nice, safe, and accessible place to live. Do not assume off the bat that they have come to wreak havoc on your peaceful community. Sometimes owners are more difficult to deal with, so treat each issue on a case-by-case basis. I will pose a few concerns and offer some potential solutions, so you can go back to dreaming about the changing leaves and pumpkin spice lattes (or your other cozy drink of choice).

Resident Information

If you are renting out your unit, you must provide the management company (or board of directors, if there is no property manager) with your tenant’s information within 10 days of entering the lease. In a building, this can be a bit easier as the manager can obtain this when the resident asks for their names to be added to the buzzer, or they request a new fob, or rental of the party room. It can be much more difficult in a townhome, as there are not as many things to hold in exchange for their names and contact information. Perhaps it is a visitor parking pass, or when they reach out to you about a maintenance issue, but we ask directors and residents to be patient as we inquire about the new people in the corner unit. We are not asking because we are nosy; we are supposed to have this information!

Parking

If your condo has visitor parking, it is common for there to be rules surrounding the spaces, such as a rule that indicates that residents cannot park there at any time. If that rule exists, then it is ideal to have a system to enforce it, such as hiring a parking control monitoring company to write tickets to offenders or having a designated person onsite contact a company to ticket. Sometimes tickets are the only effective way to ensure action after reminders have been issued. If you are looking to rent your unit, please be sure to communicate the parking situation to potential renters. Do not tell them, for example, that they can park in visitors if that is against the rules, otherwise you may have your tenants sending parking tickets your way.

As property managers, we do not enjoy telling new residents that there is nowhere for their second vehicle (or third). If you will be having guests use parking, make sure you understand the process of parking in visitors, if it be displaying a pass or calling in to register your vehicle to avoid a ticket.

Noise

Students can get a bad rap; they are not all partiers who set up lawn chairs and beer pong on the front lawns and blast their music into the wee hours. However, these situations sometimes unfold anyways, especially when guests of theirs with little regard for your sleep schedule come onsite. Sometimes these incidents are one-offs and neighbours put up with it. Other times, it becomes a trend, and something must be done. In a townhome, the primary option is calling the police (not 911 for noise please) or City bylaw, depending on where you live. They will either be issued a notice or fine, and noise infraction tickets should certainly deter the party units (eventually they cut into your coffee or beer budget). In a building, sometimes the superintendent can investigate but they should bring matters such as these to the property manager afterwards. Managers can contact the owner and advise them that their tenants must abide by the condo rules and bylaws regarding noise. Neighbours have the right to the peaceful enjoyment of their homes.

Garbage and Tidiness

Some students are extremely neat and orderly, and things tend to go more smoothly when a parent owns the unit they are in, or someone else is checking in. Other times, porches are littered with junk, windows are lined with liquor bottles (otherwise known as trophies to some), windows or balconies may have a flag or a seasonal item that is way past its season. For many students, this is their first time away from home and they just don’t think about how these things look to an outsider. The mess is often unintentional and without malice. However, it will irk the residents who put time and care into their property, and several disheveled units can quickly give a property an unkept look. If you are a landlord, it is required for you to provide your tenants with the condo documents which often indicate the rules on window coverings, porch or balcony décor, waste storage, etc. It is also prudent that you or your unit manager check on the unit more than once a year to ensure it is in good shape. It is not the role of the property manager to do weekly checks on units and send constant reminders.

Final Tips

If you manage a building or complex with many student rentals, it is not a bad idea to distribute the rules/policies regularly, either on your electronic notice board or via a community website.

Sometimes an insert is included in the status certificate package summarizing the aspects that greatly impact tenants.

Some condos update their rules to be very specific to assist with enforcement (timelines to remove Christmas lights, what can be kept on porches, etc.).

Try to work with the owner of a problematic tenant before calling legal, as it is important to take steps to resolve the matter first.

The manager does not typically enter units so it is prudent to have someone check items that may be disregarded such as furnace filters, window A/C units, water softeners, shut-off valves, smoke detectors, bathtubs, toilets, etc.

Sara Hicks, B.A.,(H.), OLCM, RCM, LCCI
Vice-President , Shareholder, MF Property Management
www.mfproperty.com

From food prices to gas prices, mortgage rates to rental rates, there isn’t a sector on this big blue rock that hasn’t been affected by the recent rise in inflation.

One place in the condominium industry that couldn’t be more true is construction cost.

What we’ve seen across the country are many condo corporations facing higher than anticipated costs for major repair and replacement projects. The current environment of higher prices for materials and labour not only affects the cost of major repairs and replacements in the near term, but this also affects budgeting for future construction costs in your Reserve Fund Study (“RFS”) funding plan.

Condo corporations that are tendering major projects today are typically seeing bids ranging from 25% to 100% higher than what was planned in their RFS. The cost for certain types of projects (roofing and windows for example) have increased in price more than others. What really matters to a condo corporation is how much a contractor is going to charge to do the same project a few years ago compared to what they charge today. Unless you’ve actually tendered the same project at 2 different times, this is impossible to know, but the best benchmark I have found is the Statistics Canada Residential Building Construction Price Index. Based on this index, the cost of residential building construction across Canada (based on results from eleven (11) major metropolitan areas) has increased by an average of 36% over a 2-year period from 2020 to 2022. The increase for construction prices in Toronto (the closest and most relevant to Grand River) was 44% over the same 2-year period. While this appears staggering, based on my recent experience, this is reflective of the reality of current construction costs.

What does this mean for a condo corporation?

Condo boards need to be more diligent than ever in evaluating their funding plan for near-term major work together with their long-term reserve funding plan. From a near-term perspective, once a condo board receives pricing for a major reserve fund project, the first check and balance is to compare the cost and timing to what is budgeted in the reserve fund study. A significant discrepancy in either the cost or timing can create a funding shortfall. Even if the corporation has enough funds in the Reserve Fund to cover the cost of the current project, depleting the fund for an early, unplanned, or over budget expense may leave the corporation short for another near-term project.

From a long-term perspective, condo boards should not underestimate the impact that higher construction costs are going to have on their RFS plan. The impact of a significant increase in the cost of all the future planned work can be dramatic. In very simple terms, if the cost of the planned work in the future has increased by 44%, shouldn’t a corporation expect to increase the amount they contribute to the reserve fund by 44%?

The reality in the current environment is that there is likely going to be a shortfall (compared to the original RFS budget) for condominium corporations completing major projects in the near-term, and there is going to be pressure to increase reserve fund contributions to save adequately for other projects over the long-term. Condo boards faced with current funding challenges are encouraged to update their RFS, even if it isn’t due for several years, in order to get the best grasp on the financial needs of the corporation.

I have a few recommendations for a board faced with a shortfall in the current environment:

1.     Take the time to evaluate all your funding options. The right solution could be an increase in condo fees, a special assessment, a loan to the condo corporation, or some combination of those solutions. There are experienced reserve fund planners and lenders that can help you evaluate those options.

2.     Communicate with your owners early and often. If you expect an issue may be on the horizon, tell your owners, and tell them what due diligence is being completed to find solutions or options. Keep the owners updated as you obtain more information and share whatever you can so that the process is as transparent as possible.

3.     Engage the owners and empower them to be part of the solution. Condo boards considering a loan as a possible solution are often providing a loan as one potential option for homeowners. A borrowing bylaw can be presented to the owners as a choice between a loan or another alternative plan. Consider weighing out the pros and cons of multiple options and let the owners choose the best funding plan for the community.

Ryan Griffiths
Director, Condominium Finance
www.cwbmaxium.com

Do you have a virtual meeting and electronic voting by-law? 

If the answer is no, then make sure to read “September 30, 2022 Deadline-Virtual Meetings and E-Voting” by Denise Lash. 

This article will give you insight into how to prepare for this potential change in your condominium. 

June 2022

Teno v. Essex C.C. No. 28, 2022 ONCAT 43

Introduction

May 2022 was a busy month in the Condominium Authority Tribunal (“CAT”). As our readers will know, the CAT has exclusive jurisdiction to resolve disputes between owners and condominium corporations with respect to the provisions of the declaration, by-laws and rules relating to pets/animals. In Teno v. Essex Condominium Corporation No. 28, 2022 ONCAT 43, the CAT provides guidance to condominiums and property managers on how a condominium can migrate towards compliance in the face of historical nonenforcement.

Facts

In Teno, the condominium’s declaration contained a blanket prohibition on all animals within the condominium. As our readers may remember from our previous article, https://www.svlaw.ca/condominium-law/insights/details/decisions-from-the-cat-human-rights-pet-prohibitions, prohibitions on animals contained in a declaration are not required to be reasonable, and exceptions are rare.

That said, despite this prohibition, it was not enforced for three (3) decades, specifically with respect to the condominium permitting cats. When the condominium began receiving requests for dogs from owners, the condominium reviewed and determined to bring itself into compliance with the prohibition contained in the declaration.

To move towards compliance, in light of the history of non-enforcement, the condominium enacted rules permitting existing cats to be kept, provided the cats were confined to the units, and until the animals passed away. During this time, no new animals would be permitted and once the “legacy cats” passed away, they were not permitted to be replaced. Given decisions from Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice that past massive non-enforcement may bar the condominium’s efforts to enforce the prohibition against existing cat owners in the present, the passage of transition/ “legacy” rules offered the best avenue to achieve future compliance. An owner challenged the “legacy” rule on the basis that such was contrary to the prohibition in the declaration and therefore invalid.

Under the Condominium Act, 1998 (the “Act”), condominiums may pass reasonable rules, however those rules must be consistent with the declaration. Boards must also take all reasonable steps to ensure compliance with a declaration. In its analysis, the CAT found that while there was past nonenforcement, the condominium acknowledged this, and the passage of the “Legacy” rules represented the condominium’s efforts to move towards compliance, while balancing the rights of existing pet owners. Provided the condominium was moving to compliance with its declaration’s prohibition on animals, such a transitional rule was reasonable and valid.

Bottom Line

Balancing the interests of all owners, including ensuring compliance with a condominium’s governing documents can be a challenging task. Such a task can be made even more difficult where certain provisions of a declaration or rule have gone unenforced in the past or have been applied inconsistently. However, previous nonenforcement may not be a complete bar to future enforcement. Provided a condominium recognizes its obligations to its governing documents, and acknowledges past nonenforcement, future compliance can be achieved by migrating, in a clear, fair, and consistent manner, to enforcing its declaration, by-laws and rules over time.

Written by Christopher Mendes, edited by Robert Mullin. *This article does not constitute legal advice, always consult legal counsel.

Christopher Mendes, B.A. (Hons.), M.A., J.D.
Lawyer, SV Law
www.svlaw.ca