The Government of Ontario has recently released a draft regulation under the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 concerning the mandatory filing of condominium information returns and the maintenance of a condominium information database that would be available to the public.
The regulation contemplates that there will be four types of mandatory information returns:
- An initial return would be filed after a condominium corporation is registered.
- A turn-over return would be filed after the turnover meeting has been held and an owner-elected board is in place.
- A one-time transitional return would be filed by all condominium corporations registered prior to the return provisions coming into force.
- An annual return would be filed by all corporations between January 1 and March 31 of each year.
The returns will include the following information: the corporation’s address for service, the name and address of the manager, the names of all the directors, the number of units in the condominium and the maximum number of votes that could be counted at an owners meeting, the start and end date of the corporation’s fiscal year, and the date of the last annual general meeting.
In addition to filing returns, notices of change will be required in certain circumstances, such as a change in the corporation’s directors or manager or if an administrator has been appointed.
All returns and notices of change would be required to be filed electronically.
A condominium database containing all of the information in the returns and notices of change would be maintained by the Registrar and would be publicly available (excluding any condominium corporation’s e-mail address) for non-commercial purposes.
Comments on the draft regulation can be provided on-line up to August 22, 2017. Click here to submit comments. The proposed regulation is intended to come into force in early 2018.
One of the hallmarks of the new condominium legislation is that throughout the entire process, from the initial announcement that the condominium legislation would be significantly revamped, the government has continually sought feedback from condominium owners, residents, directors, managers and other industry-related players.
