Working With Your Condo Board
Handling Disagreements
If you disagree with a policy taken by your condo board, or feel the condominium development is not being properly managed in some way, you have a number of options. You can:
- discuss your concern informally with members of the board.
This is usually the best way to start and may be enough to solve the problem. - write to the board requesting formal consideration of your concern
You may also request an opportunity to speak about your concern at a board meeting. Generally speaking, only directors have a right to attend board meetings, but they can invite you if they wish. - raise your concern at an annual general meeting of the owners
At an annual general meeting, an owner may raise for discussion any matter relevant to the affairs and business of the corporation. This is a good way to test whether other owners share your concern. - seek to make your concern the topic of a special owners meeting.
If a disagreement cannot be resolved in these ways, there are additional procedures, including mediation, arbitration and other legal actions.
- in most cases, mediation is a mandatory first step
This is where a facilitator is brought in to help the parties work out a mutually-agreeable solution. Mediation is the preferred approach because it’s often less costly than the courts. - if mediation fails, binding arbitration is the next step
This is where an impartial person conducts a hearing, to which the parties bring evidence, and the arbitrator makes a binding decision. There are cases where an arbitration decision can successfully be appealed to a court.
Mediation and arbitration processes are sometimes called alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Mediators and arbitrators are listed in the yellow pages and on web sites such as the ADR Institute of Ontario. It is in your best interest to cooperate with your condominium corporation if it requests that you participate in mediation or arbitration to resolve a dispute. If you refuse to participate, the corporation may be able to take you to court.
Talk to your lawyer if you are considering legal action against your condo corporation. In most cases you cannot take a condo dispute to court without having tried mediation.
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