Changes Coming to the Condominium Act, 1998?

As you may have heard, the Ontario government is considering bringing into force some amendments to the Condominium Act, 1998 (the “Act”) made in 2015 under the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015. These changes relate primarily to owners meetings or voting at owners meetings. The Ontario government is also proposing amendments to the regulations under the Act to reflect the proposed changes to the Act. Lastly, the Ontario government is proposing to expand the jurisdiction of the Condominium Authority Tribunal (CAT). We will briefly describe the key proposed amendments below.

Owners Meetings

There are several changes proposed to the Act and regulations that could change the way owners meetings are conducted in the future. Here is a summary of some of the changes:

Owner-Occupied position on the board of directors would be replaced with the “Non-Leased Voting Unit” position. In addition, the non-leased voting unit would only be required in certain circumstances, such as where an owner of a non-leased voting unit requests it within the prescribed time. Many condominiums will be able to avoid it so long as no one requests the position be voted on. This change would also require changes to various forms, like preliminary notices of meeting and notices of meetings.

Requisition meeting requests will have a more defined process to follow. The Act will be amended to make it clear who can requisition certain types of meetings. It also proposes a list of reasons owners may requisition meetings – information meetings, removal of directors, or “any other purpose for which this Act or regulations permit the owners to requisition a meeting of owners.” This is an interesting change. I cannot wait to see how people interpret it. Does that mean owners can only requisition where the Act or regulations expressly give the owners the right to requisition to vote (e.g. rules, changes made under s.97 of the Act)? Does the first item in the list, information meetings, give owners the right to requisition for just about any reason remotely related to the condominium?

 The amendments also set out details on the board’s required response to a requisition, how it may be withdrawn by the owners requisitioning it, and a deemed response if the board fails to respond within the time required. Currently, the Act would state the board has 10 days or such other period in the regulations to respond to the requisition. The regulations propose 20 days to respond. This seems like it might be intended to give condominiums more time to figure out the new process with the regulations eventually amended to reflect the 10 days stated in the Act, but only time will tell. In any event, it is better than the 5 days they currently have to send out a preliminary notice when they receive a requisition.

Condominium Authority Tribunal

The proposal also includes the expansion of the CAT’s jurisdiction to include disputes about meetings of the owners, like annual meetings, requisition meetings, and other special meetings. Specifically, it is proposed that the CAT would have jurisdiction to hear disputes about:

1. Giving and serving notice of the meeting and required documents.
2. Calling and holding meetings of owners to elect or remove directors.
3. Calling and holding meetings to discuss director or officer conflicts of interest.
4. Calling and holding meetings to elect directors to the first board and related issues for the meeting.
5. Calling and holding the turnover meeting from the declarant.
6. Calling and holding a requisition meeting.
7. The right of an owner or mortgagee to vote at a meeting.
8. The quorum for the meeting.
9. The methods of voting at the meeting, including validating proxies or counting votes.
10. The voting for a by-law and determining the appropriate number of units required to vote in favour for the by-law (as there are two separate voting thresholds for by-laws).
11. The voting for rules at the meeting or notifying owners of their right to requisition a meeting to vote on rules.
12. Voting at meetings or notifying owners of their right to vote on joint by-laws and rules.
13. The process for appointing an auditor, fixing remuneration of the auditor, or removing the auditor.
14. Calling a meeting of owners for the purposes of amending the declaration or description.
15. Calling or holding a meeting of owners, including notifying owners of the right to requisition a meeting to vote in some circumstances, on electric vehicle charging station proposals.
16. Calling a meeting of owners for the purposes of proposing the amalgamation of two or more condominiums and for electing the new board of the amalgamated condominium.

The proposed changes would also increase the prescribed limit on damages from $25,000 to $35,000 to match the current limit of the Small Claims Court.

Make Your Thoughts Known!

The Ontario government is seeking feedback on the proposed amendments. You can download the documents and provide your feedback (by March 10, 2025) here: https://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/view.do?postingId=49913&language=en