Effective November 1, 2017, new provisions under the amended Condominium Act, 1998 (the “Act”) and amended Ontario Regulation 48/01 set out the obligations imposed on condominium corporations to maintain records.
What Records Must be Kept?
Condominium corporations must keep the following records:
- Financial records;
- Minute book of board meetings and owners’ meetings;
- Declaration, by-laws and rules;
- All turnover documents and materials;
- Records relating to litigation and insurance claims and investigations;
- Records relating to specific units and leased units, as well as unit owners and mortgagees;
- Performance audit report;
- Reserve fund studies and plans to increase the reserve fund;
- All agreements to which the condominium corporation is bound;
- The report of any court-appointed inspector;
- Employee records;
- Insurance policies;
- Disclosure statements and information submitted to the corporation by candidates seeking election to the board of directors, as well as directors’ training records;
- All information returns, notices of change and status certificates;
- Proxies and ballots and a record of all recorded votes submitted at owners’ meetings;
- Warranties and guarantees relating to the corporation’s property;
- Reports and opinions from an architect, engineer or appraiser relating to the corporation’s property;
- Drawings and plans relating to the condominium property;
- Records relating to modifications under section 97 or section 98 of the Act; and
- Any additional records specified in the corporation’s by-laws.
How Long Must Records Be Kept?
There is an unlimited retention period for fundamental corporation records, including:
- minute book of board and owners’ meetings,
- drawings and plans,
- turnover documents,
- performance audits, reserve fund studies and plans
- declaration, by-laws, rules,
- current records of owners and leases,
- records relating to ongoing litigation and insurance claims and investigations,
- current warranties and insurance policies, and
- ongoing agreements.
Financial records must be kept for 7 years after the end of the last fiscal year to which they relate.
The following records must also be kept for 7 years:
- Information returns and notices of change,
- status certificates,
- director disclosure and training records,
- records relating to specific owners,
- employee records,
- expired agreements and warranties
- records relating to concluded insurance claims/investigations and litigation
- reports and opinions from an engineer, architect or appraiser relating to the corporation’s property.
Proxies and ballots and records of recorded votes at owners’ meetings must be kept at least 90 days. However, if the corporation receives a written notice of litigation relating to those records, they would have to be kept until the litigation is concluded.
If records are subject to an access request by an owner, purchaser or mortgagee, those records would not be able to be destroyed until the access request is concluded or abandoned. (Click here to read our previous blog post about access to records under the new legislation.)
How Can Records be Kept?
Records may be kept in paper or electronic form.
Paper records must be kept either on the condominium property or at a location that the board determines will enable it to carry out its obligations with respect to records or at the condominium manager’s place of business or any other place reasonably close to the condominium property.
Electronic records must be kept in a form that is capable of reproducing any information from records in an accurate and intelligible form within a reasonable time. Electronic documents need to use reasonable methods to protect against unauthorized access (e.g. password-protected) and have reasonable protection against loss, damage or inaccessibility, including automatic back-up of files and recovery of back-up files.
