Condo Owners Association COA

Concerns on Condo Act Review 

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1. Why is the Condo Act self governed with no fines for non compliance and illegal contravention of the act yet other acts offer protection with fines, ie Traffic Act, Health & Safety Act, AODA Accessibility Act etc.
2. Expert Panel has over 95% of the Panel with representatives of Condo Service Trades and no representation for Condo Owners
3. Initial suggestions/recommendations adopted by the Ministry based on input from OWNERS versus SERVICE PROVIDERS in their initial report
4. The Condo Office is a Provincial Government CASH GRAB from Condo Owners and is completely unfair and unreasonable!
5. The proposal to charge all condo owners by implementing a Condo Office at a monthly fee will cost huge dollars ( based on the number of Condos in the Province)
6. Why are Condo Owners expected to pay for Property Managers licensing when they are employees of Property Management Firms
7. Why are Condo Owners targeted to pay more money from a Condo Act review when this review is supposed to be about protecting and creating a better condo act
8. Condo Owners need a standardized declaration in plain language, adopting multi-culturism so everyone can read and understand, the new Condo Act is more confusing!
9. The Provincial Government should be working with the Condo Owners Association to open communication between Condo Owner
10. New Condo Act continues to be be self-regulated yet evidence proves 14 years of present acts provides NO Protection for condo owners 
11. Owners and Board of Directors shows a disconnect between the two (2) parties
12. The condo act report has confirmed proxy forgery but there is no 3rd party holder of proxies to prevent tampering by Board Members or Property Managers who may be involved with the same to ensue their contracts
13. Like the auditor, the Legal Counsel for the Condo should be elected/appointed by the owners and NOT the Board. Therefore, the lawyer works for the Owners and the Board will then need to hire its own lawyer. There have been too many problems for owners trying to get satisfaction from the Board
14. The review process is taking far too much time.  Presently, the Ministry knows the 20% of the issues that are causing 80% of the problems. Therefore apply the 80/20 rule and implement some changes now versus a year from now
15. Why did the government not involved MPAC on the review and analyse how MPAC evaluates Condos on their present structure for property tax assessment and adjust to consider reserve funds, refurbishments and upgrades.
16. Why is there no ability for condo owners to find out about MPAC assessments online to compare their tax assessments as there is with single family homes
17. Why was there no discussion in the condo act review on why there is COA Board member on Tarion or at least someone to represent Condo Owners ?
18. Why did the panel not recommend less time for Status certificates considering 10 days is too long of a period of time for condo owners to wait
19. Why is the fee for status certificates not paid to the Condo Corporation but instead to the Property Management Firms yet the documents belong to the Condo Corporation.
20. Why did the review not address the need for Status Certificates to be broader and provide more info to a prospective owner/buyer. Also a history of maintenance fees for at least 3 years needs to be included.
21. How come Board members can have meetings and delay approval for costly recommendations yet do not have to inform the Condo Owners at the beginning of discussion so they are prepared and alerted
22. The developer needs to guarantee the maintenance fees for the first 3 years to prevent excessive maintenance fee increases after the 1st year
23. Why has the Government not taken the Condo Owners Association advice to create a Reserve Fund Bond for Condominiums that pays an interest rate at last 1% or 1.5% higher than the Ontario Savings Bond
24. As part of the Directors and Officers insurance, and to ensure that the Condo Board acts reasonably, there could be premium incentives for Boards who operate with and implement proper governance principles and policies
25. Why does the Board of Directors have the ability to accumulate excessive surpluses and also are not mandated to obtain 3 quotes for any or all services
26. Why would the Government limit courses to new Board Members when there is substantial proof that many Board Members have a lack of condominium knowledge
27. The Government should be utilizing and help support Canadian Colleges and Universities to provide courses for Property Managers and Property Management Firms
28. The Government should be utilizing and help support Canadian Colleges and Universities to provide courses for all Condominium Board members