Written communications
“Writing comes more easily if you have
something to say.”
—Sholem Asch
Leaflets
Leaflets are an ideal way to communicate with the owners. They are
cheap, as low as six cents a copy, easy to design and very effective.
Get an agreement with the board, if necessary, on when and how you can
leaflet the
building. If they say you cannot leave leaflets in the unit doors or
hand out leaflets on the common elements, then you may have to leaflet
out on the sidewalk to the drivers when they drive onto the property.
This can be an inefficient and inconvenient way of getting the leaflets
into the residents' hands but it is perfectly legal and it makes a huge
impact.
Always put contact information; telephone number, e-mail address and
web address if you have one, on the bottom of every leaflet.
One owner told me that he went to the nearby bus stop every morning
during rush hour and leafleted the residents while they waited for
their bus. That is an excellent idea.
Leaflet drops
In China, companies place sticky decals on condo steel doors. Much harder to remove. Photo: CondoMadness
In the older condos, you can go door-to-door to talk with the owners and hand out your leaflets.
If people are home great. If they are not, slip the leaflets through
the side or the bottom of the door.
Don't leave the leaflets in the hallway by the doors or stuck in the
door handles. A board member, one of their supporters or security may
go floor to floor removing all the leaflets they find.
Will the directors or their agents remove leaflets?
If an owner leaflets the residential units discussing items that are of
concern to the owners, the activist may get a cease and desist letter
from management or the corporation lawyer. The letter will say that
dropping literature at the unit doors, and/or canvassing the residents
is considered soliciting and is a violation of the corporation's rules
or by-laws.
(Yet, I am not aware of any case law where a judge has agreed with this opinion.)
What's more, once the leaflet has been dropped at a resident's door,
who owns the leaflet? Gerry Hyman, a condo law columnist for the
Toronto Star wrote on this in his column of 09 September 2017.
Owners
in my building have placed leaflets on each unit’s door handle,
advertising a condominium community website. One of the directors has
been seen removing the leaflets. Can he do this?
The leaflets were obviously placed on
the door handles for the benefit of the unit occupants. Removal of the
leaflets should only be by the unit occupants or by the director if the
board passed a resolution. The resolution would appear to be necessary
even if the declaration or rules prohibited the attachment of anything
to the door handles.
Bulk mailings
Canada Post will put a leaflet into every mailbox in the building at a
reduced commercial rate. However, they will only accept orders to
service
the whole mail route so it is expensive. Still, if you have the
money, give it some thought.
Postings
If you are not allowed to put up posters on the property it is very
important
that you don't do it. It will upset the board and it will
also upset at least some
of the owners.
However, if the board is making it very difficult for you to reach the
owners, you may consider putting up posters on the telephone poles near
the condo building, local community bulletin boards and especially in the nearby
bus shelters.
If you do this, expect your leaflets to be torn down as soon as they
are seen
by a board member or a supporter. It can be a sort of game; you put
them up and they take them down.
Since you listened to my earlier advice and kept the lines of
communications open, you may be able to make a deal with the board on
what rules both sides will follow when communicating with the owners.
E-mail
“The
most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home
will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We're just
in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough
for most people - as remarkable as the telephone.”
—Steve Jobs
E-mail is great as it is a free two-way method of communicating with
dozens or hundreds of people. It is fast and convenient.
Canada Post
The biggest obstacle is getting in touch with the absentee landlords
who rent out their units.
The easiest way, is to obtain a list of all the owners, including their
addresses from the property manager. Most of the time they will
cooperate and give you a copy for a nominal charge.
However, they will not give you the owners' telephone or fax numbers.
They
could also play dirty and give you a dated list or delay honouring your
request to increase your difficulties.
The best way to verify that the owner's list is accurate is to go to
the city land office and check the names and addresses of all the
registered unit owners from the municipal tax records. (This list can
be also be extremely important
if your group is going to verify the authenticity of the proxies.
It is expensive to do a mailing to all the absentee owners. Canada Post
charges:
Domestic stamps
|
85¢ (in volume)
|
United States
|
$1.20
|
International
|
$2.50
|
If you need to do a mailing for a hundred owners, it adds up. It
becomes twice as expensive if you send a stamped pre-addressed envelop
to make it easy for the owners to mail back an enclosed proxy.
(If you are requesting the owners to send you their proxy, a faxed one
is valid.)
Buttons
Some print shops will make up a couple dozen buttons at an
extremely inexpensive price. Very effective and they get people talking.
Business
cards
They are cheap to make up and are very effective. They are a good way
to hand out your contact information.
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