All signals suggest that when the Ontario government moves forward with its modernization of the Condominium Act, creating a ‘condo office’ will not be a question of if, but how — as in how will it be funded and rolled out?
The Condominium Act review’s Stage Three Feedback Report, released Oct. 1, found that condo residents generally welcomed the recommendations for reform made by working groups and finalized by an expert panel last fall. The recommendation for a centralized condo office that would provide information, oversight and support to the condo community was one of several recommendations that enjoyed particular popularity.
Report author Public Policy Forum, a non-profit organization that specializes in public engagement, led the province’s three-stage legislative review. In stage three of the Condominium Act review, Public Policy Forum reconvened a 36-member residents’ panel struck in stage one, solicited online feedback and hosted public roundtables to test the recommendations that came out of stage two. During the public roundtables, the non-profit organization devoted particular attention to asking condo residents about the condo office idea and, if adopted, how it should be funded and which of its proposed services should be prioritized.
Don Lenihan, senior associate, Public Policy Forum, said that in setting the framework for the Condominium Act review, the Ontario government established that, given the current financial climate, any costly recommendations would need to be accompanied by funding recommendations.
“The condo office emerged near the end of the process as a bigger and more robust proposal than anyone had foreseen,” said Lenihan.
The condo office was conceived as a cheaper and faster alternative to dispute resolution via the court system. The proposal envisioned the office housing a quick decision maker empowered to settle certain types of minor disputes as well as a dispute resolution office able to assess complex disputes. The proposal then evolved into an umbrella organization that would house other recommended services, including a condo registry, education and information, and condo manager licensing.
The Stage Two Solutions Report proposed that the condo office be funded through a combination of user fees and a “modest” $1 to $3 levy per condominium unit per month.
The stage three feedback-gathering process established that residents largely supported the idea of a condo office, said Lenihan, but it failed to produce a clear consensus as to the preferred funding model for the office.
Many condo residents expressed willingness to contribute a modest monthly fee towards a condo office considering the benefits and services it could potentially bring, according to the feedback report. But some condo residents resisted the idea of paying a monthly fee, citing concerns including affordability, the potential for fees to escalate and unfairness in light of the publicly funded education and services available to homeowners, landlords and tenants.
The obstacle to relying on user fees or licensing fees, as some residents suggested, Lenihan said, is that those funding streams alone couldn’t sustain the condo office as proposed. If user fees were chosen as the sole funding source for the condo office, he added, the fees would need to be so high that they would defeat the condo office’s intended purpose of providing a cheaper alternative to dispute resolution via the court system. And the office’s dispute resolution services function was a high priority for many residents, he said.
“The government will have to make some judgment calls on how much it thinks people are ready and willing to accept, whether [the condo office] should be on a trial basis and how this should be paid for,” Lenihan said. “My own view is it probably should be phased in; it probably shouldn’t be as robust as the full-blown condo office that we imagined in the stage two report; but that it really is a positive development and it addresses a lot of the concerns that people brought forward.”
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services said via email that one of the ministry’s key takeaways from the feedback report was that residents and stakeholders are “strongly supportive” of the Condominium Act review’s stage two recommendations.
“The report also detailed a few areas for further consideration by the Ministry,” the spokesperson added, “for example, the need to ensure that the fee structure for the condo office is fair and appropriate.”
The ministry spokesperson affirmed the provincial government’s commitment to introducing legislation to update and improve the Condominium Act, which will be informed by the recommendations that emerged from the overall review process.
Industry observers originally anticipated that the Ontario government would introduce new legislation in the spring, but that timeline was delayed when its spring budget triggered an election. It is now anticipated that new legislation will be introduced after the legislature resumes on Oct. 20.
Michelle Ervin is the editor of CondoBusiness.
