What are you buying?
When you buy a condo, you are buying a unit and you are also buying a
portion of the common elements. That portion is based on the square
footage of your unit as a percentage of the total space of all the
privately owned units.
If the parking spots and lockers are privately owned, they are also
included in the total square footage. The bigger your square footage,
the more you pay.
Each unit owner pays their share of the costs to maintain and service
the common elements on top of the maintenance and replacements to their
individual unit.
Towers
The unit owners in a condominium residential tower have to pay the for
the utilities, cleaning, repairs and replacements for all the common
elements including the amenities, hallways, lobby, driveways, parking
lots and landscaping. They also have to pay for security and property
management.
Shared facilities
If you belong to a condo corporation that owns facilities that are
shared with other corporations, you will pay a share of all those costs
as well.
Townhouses
When condos first became possible in Ontario in 1967, it did not take
municipalities long to figure out that condo townhouses were a great
way to get residential housing on the cheap.
All the municipality had to do is allow the developer to hook up the
condo corporation's utilities to the city mains and not much else.
The builder put in the roads, street lighting water and sewage pipes,
the electrical wiring and the playgrounds and then the condo
corporation took over the responsibility of maintaining and replacing
them.
Investor towers
There are many new towers that have been built with a large percentage
of bachelor and one-bedroom units. These units were not designed to
appeal for owner-residents but for investors who would rent them out to
young professionals and students or use them as short-term hotel suites.
If you are looking for a permanent resident, you may want to avoid
these buildings.
Common Element Condominium
Corporation (CECC)
These type of condos are still rare in
Ontario and were usually built as detached houses in rural areas.
People own their own homes but the land, roads, sewers, fire hydrants,
street lighting and electrical lines are owned and maintained by the
condo.
They are very much like American Home Owner Associations (HOA).
Developers love them because the roads, sewers, water lines and street
lighting don't have to be built to
municipal standards.
Some townhouse complexes in urban areas are being built as CECC's. The
condo
fees seem really cheap so purchasers, especially of re-sales, may not
understand that the fees are cheap because they have to do all the
exterior work on their units themselves. So you have to pay a
contractor to replace your shingles and windows; you need to caulk your
own windows, paint your own door and maintain your own front lawn.
When buying a townhouse be sure what it is that you are buying. Some
real estate agents may think that a CECC townhouse is a freehold. This
can cause the new owner a lot of grief when they fail to pay their
monthly fees and battle with their neighbours when they paint their
front door a different colour.
Condo Nazis
Even though the owners own their individual units and their front and
back yards, the condo has by-laws, rules and regulations stating what
colour the shingles, exterior paint and doors must be painted. They may
restrict the type of windows the owner installs, what types of trees
are planted and how well the lawns and flowerbeds must be maintained.
It is very important that anyone thinking of buying a unit in a CECC
understands what they are buying into to. Here are a couple of news
reports on the costs that some condo owners where not expecting.
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Sewage problem to cost St. Cloud condo owners thousands
Osceola County Reporter
By Bailey Myers,
Last Updated: Friday, February 13, 2015
Homeowners in one St. Cloud condo community said their kids are playing
is sewage-filled yards.
It’s all because of a sewage burst that happened months ago and now
homeowners are being asked to foot the repair bill.
“They say we are going to fix it this month, this month, this month,"
said Mayra Fuentes. "But we don’t see them fix it and that’s just what
we want.”
Homeowners say “This Month” has turned into about seven at the
Palm Gardens complex and still no fix. Instead they have seen just a
temporary band aid for a major sewer system problem.
Some owners even said they think it’s a health problem because they’ve
seen sewer water bubbling out of the system onto the road.
“It’s the sewer water that’s coming out. It’s not safe for the kids,
it’s not safe for us,” Fuentes explained.
We spoke with a manager at Palm Gardens off camera and they told us
they are working with the City of St. Cloud to fix the sewer problem.
But it doesn’t stop there. The city spokesperson told us the entire
system in the complex will need to be replaced.
Homeowners also said now they are being asked to pay $3,000 out of
their own pocket.
“I can’t pay. And I know a lot of people around here can’t pay because
this is low-income housing,” Another home owner explained.
Although she didn’t want us to use her name, this other woman said she
has lived here for years and pays $165 a month in maintenance fees. She
doesn’t understand why those collected fees are not being used to fix
the problem or why it’s taking so long to resolve.
The City of St. Cloud said they do plan on working on this project in
the first few weeks of March.
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