Welcome to the amended Condominium Act!
As of yesterday, many changes to the Condominium Act came into effect that affect the day-to-day responsibilities of condo corporations.
Some of the changes require corporations to use Ministry forms where they weren’t previously required.
The Ministry released the new forms corporations will have to use for: proxies, to provide notice of meeting, and the three types of information certificates, among others. Here is a list of the new forms:
Information Certificates
1. Periodic Information Certificate
This “mini status certificate” provides owners with updates on finances, insurance, reserve fund, board, and other matters throughout the year.
Tip: This must be sent out twice per year – within 60 days after the last day of the first and third fiscal quarter.
2. Information Certificate Update
This certificate is triggered on certain events, such as a change in the directors, or change of the corporation’s address for service.
Tip: There are different time periods for sending out the Information Certificate Update depending on the type of triggering event. For example, if the board loses quorum, this must be sent out within 5 days of losing quorum, whereas a corporation has 30 days to send out the notice for a mere change in the number of directors.
3. New Owner Information Certificate
This notice contains the most recent Periodic Information Certificate and Information Certificate Update.
4. Notice of Online Posting of Information Certificate
A corporation must send this notice to owners if it decides to post any of the information certificates online (such as through property management’s web portal)
Proxies
1. Proxy Form
This form must be used by owners or mortgagees voting by proxy at a meeting of owners.
Tip: Proxy forms can be used at an adjournment of a meeting of owners. If, for example, there weren’t sufficient owners present at an AGM to pass a by-law, proxies submitted for the purpose of passing a by-law at that AGM can be used at a subsequent meeting of owners.
Notices
1. Preliminary Notice of Meeting of Owners
This notice is meant to give owners an advance notice of the purpose of the meeting of owners.
Tip: This must be sent out at least 35 days before the meeting date.
2. Notice of Meeting of Owners
This form is required for sending owners notice of an upcoming meeting of owners.
Tip: This must be sent out 15-20 days before the meeting date.
Record Requests
This form must be used when an owner, mortgagee or purchaser requests records.
2. Board’s Response to Request for Records
This form must be used by the board of directors when responding to a record request from an owner, mortgagee or purchaser.
Tip: The board must respond to the request within 30 days.
3. Waiver by Requester of Records
This is an agreement between the requester and the corporation that allows the requester to waive certain rights with respect to the corporation’s response to the record request.
Other Forms for Owners
1. Notice of Meeting of Owners under s.34(5) of the Condominium Act
This must be used by owners who wish to call a meeting to fill vacancies on the board if the board loses quorum and the remaining directors do not call within 15 days of losing quorum, or if there are no directors in office.
2. Submission to Include Material in the Notice of Meeting of Owners
This form must be used by owners if they wish to submit material to the board to be included in the upcoming Notice of Meeting of Owners
Tip: Although owners can request material to be included in the notice of meeting, the board is not obligated to include this material unless the submission is made on behalf of owners of 15% of the units (or more), and the submission would not add anything that is contrary to the Condominium Act or the regulations.
The following forms are not mandatory, but may be used by owners or mortgagees: