Amendment Issue: Requisition Meetings

I previously wrote about the changes coming to section 46 of the Act related to requisition meetings (https://ontcondolaw.com/2017/03/27/changes-are-coming-requisitions/). To recap, the biggest changes are: 1) a prescribed form for requisitions; 2) a prescribed process for communicating with the requisitionists; 3) a longer period of time to call and hold the meeting; and 4) the elimination of the owners' right to call the meeting if the condominium refuses to do so. The changes to section 46 of the Act that address requisition meetings have not yet come into force and a date has not been released. This means section 46 (as it was prior to the amendments) continues to apply while other related changes have been implemented, such as those for calling and holding meetings of the owners. Therein lies the problem. Section 46 of the Act states that the condominium must call and hold an owners' meeting within 35 days of receiving a requisition. You might be thinking that the 35 day period sounds familiar. That's probably because it is also the minimum amount of time the condominium has to send out the preliminary notice before a meeting. Does that mean the condominium must send the preliminary notice the day it receives the requisition? Fortunately, no. The regulations state that in the case of a requisition meeting only the preliminary notice may be sent out 15 days (instead of 20 days) before the notice of meeting is sent. This reduces the total minimum notice period from 35 days to 30 days, which leaves condominiums with 5 days to send out the preliminary notice of meeting. Until the amendments to section 46 of the Act come into force condominiums would be wise to address requisitions as soon as possible, especially if legal advice regarding the requisition (i.e. its validity) is sought before calling the meeting. The condominium only has 5 days (maximum) to send out the preliminary notice of meeting. That isn't very much time, especially if you have 100+ units to send the preliminary notice and other enclosures to according to the requirements of the Act.