Category: Real Estate

Boards of directors for condominium corporations are typically comprised of volunteers. Depending on the eligibility requirements in the corporation’s bylaws, these are more often than not members of the corporation, that is, unit owners. For residential condominiums, this means that the directors are also often lay people, with no particular specialized skills or professional knowledge. […] Read More

I have been contacted by several condominium corporations regarding amending their bylaws to bring them into compliance with recent changes to Alberta’s condominium legislation. Along with the changes introduced in 2019 and 2020, the Legislature provided condominium corporations with the ability to amend bylaws that conflict with the revised legislation by way of an ordinary […] Read More

Has your condominium corporation convened an Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2020? If you’re not a member of your Board of Directors and you answered ‘no’ to that question, you may want to find out for sure after reading this. I recently attended my own AGM. It’s a small condominium property with fewer than 40 […] Read More

UPDATE – Service Alberta has released a new publication, General Meetings During Relaunch, in an effort to clarify the effect of the Ministerial Order’s expiry. Among other things, this publication confirms that condominium corporations are not expressly authorized to allow electronic participation in general meetings of the corporation, especially if the bylaws are silent in […] Read More

The issue of asserting solicitor-client privilege in the condominium context is an interesting one, especially as between the condominium corporation and the individual unit owners. There are no simple answers or bright line rules when it comes to requests by unit owners for access to documents belonging to the corporation, other than what is expressly […] Read More

In a significant move for Alberta condominiums, on June 1, 2020 the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta, the Honourable Lois Mitchell, approved an Order in Council to amend the Condominium Property Regulation, AR 168/2000. Among other slight changes to document retention periods, the amendments notably give condominium corporations the ability to temporarily remove funds from their capital […] Read More

Condominium corporations face particularly unique challenges due to the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings, among other things. In response to these public health restrictions, the Minister of Service Alberta, the Honourable Nate Glubish, issued a Ministerial Order on April 9, 2020 that temporarily suspends a host of time frames and other requirements under […] Read More

The Ontario Superior Court has just ruled that unit owners allowing third party contractors access to a condominium property to perform non-urgent work in their unit constitutes a matter of urgency. Last week, in York Condominium Corporation No. 419 v Black, 2020 ONSC 2066, a condominium corporation in Ontario sought an emergency court injunction against […] Read More

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down and has changed the way that we go about our daily lives. Current public health recommendations include requirements for self-isolation, restrictions on gatherings, and physical distancing. In apartment-style condominium buildings, these recommendations are creating unique challenges and raising several issues that condominium corporations and boards […] Read More

Spring is typically Annual General Meeting (AGM) season for condominium corporations and with the COVID-19 virus having been declared a pandemic last week, condo boards should consider whether or not to proceed with scheduled AGMs. For many condo corporations, an AGM will be a “mass gathering” that corrals hundreds of unit owners together in one room, sitting in close proximity, […] Read More