Annual special assessments

A small condo in Agincourt hired a very small property management company. It was a part of a group of small companies that the owner was promoting as a "one stop for all your real estate needs".

There was a real estate arm and a renovations company along with the management company. However, this property was the only condo that this management company had under contract.



This condo has problems. The building was in serious financial difficulties. There were bricks falling off the exterior walls. Over the years, contractors patched the walls with different coloured bricks and at least once, they used the wrong size bricks.

There were numerous water leaks, broken concrete steps and a crumbling concrete in the underground garage.

The board raised the monthly maintenance expenses and two years in a row had special assessments. The owners were not too thrilled. However, each year the board managed to get re-elected.

Possible termination
In the spring of 2015, the board called an information meeting to discuss the possibility of terminating the condo corporation.

The pitch was that the corporation needed millions to repair the three buildings and that would be better to sell the assets to a developer who would demolish the structures and build new large mixed use condos on the land. The owners would evacuate their units, rent for a couple of years and then be given new units in the new condo corporation.

The management company wanted the owners to approve just over $100,000 to conduct a land survey.

This was a not well thought out plan. Where would the owners find suitable rental accommodation? Was there a developer who showed interest in this enterprise or was this just a proposal?

3rd Special Assessment
Since few owners showed any interest in terminating their condo corporation, the property manager announced a special assessment of $2,000 a unit, to be paid in three equal monthly amounts.

Since this was the third special assessment in three years and there was no sign that repairs were being done, the owners wondered where their money was going? Some owners didn't pay the first payment when it was due.

Requistion
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Why the requistion failed


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