Legislative hearings 22 Oct 2015

Here are the Committee Transcripts: Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs - 2015-Oct-29 - Bill 106, Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015.

Mr. Tom LePage
Mr Lepage, an experienced condo property manager and a condominium consultant from Collingwood spoke about the unhealthy relationship that he sees between the ACMO managers and the affiliated contractors.

"These two organizations have had a combined 70 years to maintain and enhance condominium ownership in Ontario, and instead, in my opinion, they have become no more than very powerful and self-serving marketing and networking organizations, and the interests of condo ownership are secondary."

"one particularly disturbing aspect, which I’ve been trying to solve, is that ACMO engages and organizes what I consider poorly paid property managers, and trades for after-night socials. This is a disaster. There’s no good about it. There’s nothing that will come out of that, and that bothers me tremendously. ACMO is not doing anything for the perception of conflict."

Ms. Ana Martins
Ms. Martins spoke about being first elected to her condo's board of directors. The property manager and the four other directors treated her badly and they hid the fact that the property manager was giving contracts to her boy friend's contracting company.

Horlick Levitt Di Lella
Mr. Brian Horlick, a partner at Horlick Levitt Di Lella condominium law firm, spoke spoke on the need for condo directors to sign a code of ethics. He also suggested:

"Proxies should be submitted by donors directly to the management office. Thought should also be given as to whether proxies should be submitted directly to the management office or to whoever is chairing that meeting."

Ms. Radha Nagarajah
A condo homeowner in Brampton described how her condo president hangs onto power by intimidating the seniors who live in the building.

She mentioned how the condo president misused the security cameras and the security staff to spy on her:

"Attached are also two affidavits and letters from past security personnel, confirming that I was targeted and my privacy invaded—exhibits I and J. My every move was monitored via CCTV and scrutinized by the president and the management company. They said that they followed the instructions as they feared job loss, as they are visible minorities, immigrants and seniors."

Mr. Tim Hagerty
Tim Hagerty is a professional engineer practicing in Ontario and a condo owner. When asked about the relationship between him as an owner with his board, Mr. Hagerty stated:

"I’ve had situations where items in the condominium have been shut down without acknowledgment—items that are required by the building code and the public health act to stay active, such as the closure of change rooms and washrooms for pools.

You can discuss things, but at the end of the day, you can’t make a condominium board member or a property manager create a work order to address these things that ought to be done."

Canadian Condominium Institute
Mario Deo is the the president and Sally Thompson is the vice-president of CCI. They are both are involved with Tarion as consumer advocates.

They discussed the issue of purchasers of new condos getting stuck with the first year's budget deficit and how that could be prevented.

They also suggested that condominium corporations should retain the right to pass a bylaw which passes the strict liability of damage on to a unit owner.

Mr. Randy Lippert
Randy Lippert is a professor of criminology and sociology at the University of Windsor who has been conducting research on condo governance since 2005.

"We’re wondering whether something could be put in the bill to ensure the (director management) training is provided more independently at a community college and whether there could some oversight of the curriculum, just so that board members have a more critical understanding of the industry, because they’re going to be making decisions about contracting and so on."

"Second point is, what came out of the research, as well, is that many owners were very disappointed with a single meeting, in some cases, with their board—an AGM. One of the things that they were wishing would happen was that there would be more mandated meetings during the year. Some boards, of course, offered that voluntarily, but, again, that was a concern that came out--and really, the general lack of communication between board members and owners."

"We have claims of people spending a lot of reserve funds on aesthetics rather than maintaining building systems. That was, again, an ongoing concern."

"We had countless stories of conflicts of interest. We know that the existing legislation requires that board members disclose conflicts to other board members, but we wonder if possibly the bill could require those conflicts to be revealed to any owners in the building, particularly prior to elections but also on an ongoing basis, if in fact they were interested."

"it seems to open the possibility that we will only have on the authority condo lawyers, representatives of the insurance industry and property management industry representatives. There is a provision that allows I think it’s the minister to appoint representatives of the public, consumer groups, government organizations and so on, but it says “may include,” rather than “will include.”

"We also know that of course owners and members of the condo industry are not mutually exclusive categories. The bill doesn’t seem to show any recognition of that."

"our research has shown that really there is a difference in terms of the contribution to and commitment to condo governance amongst owners. That divide is often between the investors—the absentee owners—and owner-occupiers. We were wondering if there was any possibility that there be a distinction in the fee, which is to say that absentee owners would pay a higher fee than owner-occupiers"

"We also know that the board appoints the tribunal. So it’s really about getting the board right to begin with and not simply having people from CCI, who, of course, are well-intentioned, but they do represent only the industry and not your average owner-occupier, for example."


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