Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario
It is important to under Condos structure before looking at Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario. Condos are becoming ever more important in the real estate industry and at times much confusion lies around. Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario are unique – making ever so important to properly examine financials, board, by-laws and much more. I hope this article below helps provide some insight when buying Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario or anywhere.
The role of the board – Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario
The board of directors is a group of people that is responsible for governing the corporation and for the management of the corporation’s affairs. The board of directors plays a critical role in supporting a positive, healthy condominium community and for ensuring that the corporation and its assets are well managed and maintained. The board is responsible for things such as:
- Setting the corporation’s annual budget
- Making most decisions about how the corporation will spend its money, including selecting contractors or service providers your corporation will work with
- Hiring and overseeing the work of a condo manager
A condo corporation’s board is usually made up of owners in the corporation (but there may be non-owners on some boards as well), and they are almost always elected by the owners. Directors serve for defined terms (usually three years at a time, but they can be shorter depending on a corporation’s by-laws), and must seek re-election when their term expires if they want to remain on the board.
The role of Management – Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario
Many condo corporations decide to hire a condo manager (or a condo management provider) to oversee the corporation’s day-to-day operations. The manager is accountable to the board of directors of the condo corporation.
Different condominiums have different management needs depending on the size, age and nature of the property. A condo manager’s range of responsibilities may include:
- creating and maintaining records for the condo corporation
- responding to owner complaints
- coordinating the maintenance and repair of the property
- hiring and monitoring the performance of service providers
- preparing draft annual budgets and monitoring the reserve fund
- preparing status certificates
- issuing meeting notices and reporting on the affairs of the corporation
- organizing board meetings and overseeing administration of all owners’ meetings
- monitoring the corporation’s insurance
- preparing financial reports and arranging for audits
- collecting common expense fees
- advising the board on its financial responsibilities (e.g. contributions to the reserve fund, long-term reserve fund planning)
- advising the condo board on its obligations under the Condominium Act, 1998
Looking for Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario – Contact Yasir Khan at RE/MAX.
The role of governing documents – Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario
When you buy Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario, you become a part of a condominium community. That means that you are required to abide by the Condominium Act, 1998, as well as your condo corporation’s declaration, by-laws, and rules (commonly referred to as your corporation’s governing documents).
Among other things, a condominium corporation’s declaration sets out:
- The proportion in which the owner of each unit contributes to the common expenses
- The responsibilities of owners and the condominium corporation to repair and maintain the units and common elements
A condominium corporation’s by-laws govern how the corporation operates, and can cover things
such as:
- The size of your condo board, and the process for electing directors
- The format of board meetings
- When/how the condo corporation can borrow money
Finally, a condominium corporation’s rules govern what the owners and other occupants can and can’t do in the condo community, and can cover things such as:
- When you can use the amenities
- What type or size of pets owners can (or cannot) have
- Whether you are allowed to use your unit for short-term rentals (e.g., through services such as Airbnb)
- Whether you are permitted to smoke tobacco or cannabis in your unit
The role of the Condominium Authority of Ontario
The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) was established in response to a call from condominium communities across the province for more information and more ways to solve issues and disputes. The CAO is a non-profit organization with responsibilities under the Condominium Act, 1998. The CAO’s role is to support condominium living by providing services and resources for condo communities. These include:
- easy-to-use information to help owners and residents understand their rights and responsibilities
- mandatory training for condo directors
- resources to help condo owners and residents resolve common issues
- an online dispute resolution service through the Condominium Authority Tribunal (CAT)
- the CAO’s Public Registry, which contains and displays information fled with the CAO through returns and notices of change
In addition to periodically fling returns and notices of change, every condominium corporation must pay an annual assessment fee to the CAO. The assessment fee is charged on the basis of $1 for each voting unit in the condominium corporation, per month (or $12 per voting unit per year). The total assessment amount for the corporation is added to the common expenses fees and allocated to each owner based on their “unit factor,” which can be found in Schedule D of the condominium corporation’s declaration.
The role of the Condominium Authority Tribunal
The Condominium Authority Tribunal (CAT) is a part of the CAO. It is Ontario’s first tribunal dedicated to resolving condo disputes and is Canada’s first fully online tribunal. The CAT has developed an online dispute resolution system (CAT-ODR) to help people resolve their disputes conveniently, quickly and affordably, while encouraging everyone to work together in healthy condominium communities.
For more about what is a Condos for Sale St Thomas Ontario – read my article on Introduction to Condos.
