Condo conflict: Mississauga woman’s bitter battle with condo board not uncommon, experts say
CBC News
By Trevor Dunn
01 March 2017
Alexandra Isa is demanding information from her condo board about a
2010 renovation. The board says it has provided it. (CBC)
All Alexandra Isa wanted to know was why the boiler in her brand new condo was replaced after less than four years.
She thought it was a simple question.
But seven years later, Isa says she still hasn't received a proper
answer and is now locked in a bitter and costly dispute with her own
condo board.
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"This is the biggest investment I make in my life. And not being able
to ask questions about my investment is quite concerning," Isa said in
an interview.
The building's property manager, Brookfield Condominium Services, on behalf of the board of directors, has a different story.
Regional manager Laurie Adams, in an email to CBC Toronto, said that all of the information requested by Isa has been provided.
In some cases, Adams wrote, "the same information was requested over and over again … and provided accordingly."
'The same information was requested over and over again.'
—Laurie Adams, Regional Manager, Brookfield Condominium Services
"It is after much effort, time and energy over several years that the
Board of Directors must, in cases such as this, concede to the fact
that there will be no satisfying this individual," the email said.
Isa agrees; she isn't satisfied. And so she remains at loggerheads with
her own board in a complicated dispute that experts say isn't unusual
as the number of people living in condominiums continues to grow.
Concerns about boiler
Isa, 44, works in genetics and cherishes her one bedroom condo on Kimbermount Avenue in Mississauga.
In well organized folders, she keeps hundreds of pages of documents and
correspondence with Brookfield, her condo board and their lawyers.
Isa moved in when the building opened in 2006.
But she says less than four years later, in March 2010, the building's boiler was replaced.
Just some of
the many documents Alexandra Isa has collected in her seven-year
struggle to get answers from her condo board. The board says it has
provided Isa with all the information she has requested. (CBC)
According to Isa, the decision was made without consulting owners and
at a cost of $200,000 pulled from the condo's reserve fund.
"The original boiler was still under warranty. So what happened to that?" Isa said.
According to Brookfield, the original boiler was inefficient and the
new energy-efficient boiler has resulted in savings and is more
environmentally friendly.
Isa describes the process of getting answers about the boiler project as "very difficult and challenging."
Struggle for information
Isa accuses the board of not being transparent in its decision-making and she points to a letter from May 2016.
In response to Isa's demands for information and documents relating to
the boiler project, the May 26 letter from the board president reads:
"The Board has no obligation to provide you their rationale or detailed
explanations of their decisions nor is the Board required to give you
request for proposals or documents of proof costs versus savings and
costs versus investment returns," the letter said.
Isa felt like she was getting stonewalled by her own board. She hired a
lawyer but was forced to let them go because she couldn't handle the
cost.
Alexandra Isa's
condo on Kimbermount Avenue in Mississauga. The building opened in
2006. Isa wants to know why the boiler was replaced in 2010. (CBC)
The condo board has also sent Isa several invoices for the law firm it hired to respond to her concerns.
Isa paid the first bill, but isn't sure if she'll pay the others. She says part of her condo fees go towards a legal fund.
"I've paid for those for the past 10 years. And now I'm being asked to pay again, for the corporate lawyer. How is that fair?"
Condo mediator 'extremely busy'
Fights between condo owners and boards are becoming increasingly common.
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Last year, the Ontario's Ministry of Government and Consumer Services
recorded 998 complaints, incidents and inquiries regarding the
condominium industry.
"It's extremely busy," Marc Bhalla, a chartered mediator with Elia Associates, said in an interview.
Bhalla's firm helps settle condominium disputes, which he says cost owners a great deal of stress, time and money.
"People are finding themselves living in condos and in that type of
environment conflict is natural. It's how you handle it that makes the
difference."
More serious disputes can wind up in arbitration or court, which Bhalla says can be very expensive for individual owners.
Mediation is another option, Bhalla says, but it requires at least some desire to compromise between the parties.
The government solution
But some legislative changes may help fix the problem in the future
One of the key pieces of the 2015 overhaul of the Ontario Condominium
Act was the establishment of a Condo Authority Tribunal for dispute
resolution.
In consultations leading up to the changes, the province found "a
frequent power imbalance during disputes between condo boards and
owners."
It also identified the current options for dispute resolution—arbitration or courts—as "time-consuming" and "expensive".
The tribunal's aim will be to "streamline" dispute resolution by making it more accessible and affordable for condo owners..
According to the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, two
not-for-profit corporations — the Condominium Authority of Ontario and
Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario — were
incorporated in July of last year.
"Implementation work is underway and the corporations are preparing
themselves to be considered for designation as the administrative
authorities," a government spokesperson wrote in an email to CBC
Toronto.
"The ministry is working as quickly as possible and is making
significant progress on the development of regulations for the
amendments to the Condominium Act, 1998. The ministry plans to post
those to the Regulatory Registry for public comment soon," the email
said.
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