Condo disputes

For most disputes between the corporation and an owner dealing with items in the declaration, by-laws and rules, such as parking, pets or noise issues, the corporation is required, under section 132 of the Condominium Act, to proceed with mandatory mediation and arbitration.

The Act states that a condo corporation is not entitled to apply to the court for an order for compliance against a unit owner if the mediation and arbitration processes are available.

Mediation and arbitration was put into the Act so that owners would have a cheaper and quicker way of settling disputes with the board without having to go to court, which can be slow and is a very expensive way of solving minor disagreements.

The Legislature's objective under the Condominium Act was to direct the resolution of disputes between condominium corporations and unit owners away from the courts and towards mediation and arbitration.

There are some exceptions to the mediation and arbitration requirement, namely that disagreements between the corporation and tenants as well as disagreements regarding the Act are not required to be submitted to mediation and arbitration.
 
A dispute where an owner questions the legality of a declaration, by-law or rule may not be a disagreement if there is no difference in opinion on the facts of the case.

These two dispute-resolving forums do not require either side to be represented by a lawyer but most boards use one. This greatly adds to the cost of going to mediation and arbitration.
 
Some owners are quick to settle when they find out how much these services cost. They are not free nor are they cheap. Both sides will share the costs depending on what the by-laws say and on the mediator or arbitrator’s rulings.

A possible complication
Section 132 of the Act states that every declaration shall be deemed to contain a provision that the corporation and the owners agree to submit a disagreement between the parties with respect to the declaration, by-laws or rules to mediation and arbitration in accordance with clauses.

However the actual process has been left up to each condominium corporation to develop and pass with a by-law.

If there is a dispute prior to the condo enacting of a Mediation/Arbitration Procedures by-law, the board and the owner will be without a set of procedures to follow and they will need to agree to the process they will use. This adds to the time and expense required to resolve the dispute.

An owner may need a lawyer’s assistance in setting up these procedures.

Courts
If the dispute involves an owner requesting to examine the condo corporation's records, the dispute goes directly to small claims court.

If the dispute involves an alleged violation of the Condo Act, then the dispute goes to Superior Court.

Human Rights Tribunal
If the dispute is about an alleged violation of a person's human rights, the owner, tenant or visitor can make an application to the Human Rights Tribunal.

The Landlord and Tenant Board
The Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) resolves disputes between residential landlords and tenants. A condo landlord's tenants do not fall under the Condominium Act, disputes and evictions fall under the LTB.

This can get complicated. A tenant violates one of the condo's rules so the condo goes after the owner, not the tenant. The owner then has to go to the LTB to apply to get the tenant evicted.


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