As a condo lawyer, I’m not often asked what keeps me up at night but if I were, I’d have a list. A tidy, alphabetized list of recurring legal nightmares that arrive, uninvited, in my inbox – often on a Friday at 4:59 p.m. – and occasionally in my dreams.
If only the notion of “quiet enjoyment” applied to my sleep!
1. The Post-Renovation Revelation
“Just letting you know an owner removed a load-bearing wall over the weekend. Should we be concerned?”
Yes. If your definition of “concerned” includes liability exposure, insurance nightmares, and the possibility of an unplanned open concept building collapse.
2. The AGM Free-for-All
Annual General Meetings are meant to be routine – approval of the minutes, appointment of the auditor, a year-in-review update from the board, and the election of directors.
Instead, they sometimes descend into utter chaos fueled by last-minute floor nominations, proxy mayhem, missing quorum by one unit, and someone attempting to amend the agenda to discuss their laundry list of unit-specific issues.
It’s democracy. Just louder and far less efficient.
3. Legacy Documents That Time Forgot
When a board asks us to review their governing documents, there’s a pause because we know what’s coming.
Declarations, Bylaws and Rules drafted in the 80s, referencing the Condominium Act 1978, with clauses that treat email like experimental technology.
They’re not documents. They’re archaeological artifacts.
4. The Reserve Fund Expenditure
The phone call asking if the corporation can pay for this years’ AGM refreshments from the reserve fund. Followed up with “we already did”.
Refreshments may make a major difference in the AGM’s atmosphere but they cannot repair or replace some problematic owners!
5. The “Quick Question” That Isn’t
The email begins innocently: “Quick question, can we charge back the cost of the hallway carpet cleaning to the owner whose ex-girlfriend’s guest’s dog had an accident 18 months ago?”
The answer to the reoccurring question “can we charge this back” depends on facts, documents, and a close reading of your indemnity clauses. But the real answer? There’s no such thing as a “quick question” in condo law.
These aren’t complaints. Well maybe lightly disguised ones. But mostly, they’re the reason we exist: to guide boards and managers through the messier realities of shared ownership, competing rights, and governing rules written before Wi-Fi existed.
And if we occasionally wake up wondering whether that standard unit by-law got registered -well, that’s just part of the job.
