As you probably know by now, the government intends to release draft regulations to go along with the amendments to the Act. The purpose of releasing the draft regulations is to allow for public comment. The first draft regulation, which was released in December, addressed the mandatory licensing of managers.For the first draft regulation, the deadline for comments has passed.
The second draft regulation, which was released this week, is aimed at common condominium issues: communications from condominiums to owners and mortgagees; mandatory disclosures and training for directors; meetings and voting; and record retention and access to records. The government posted the full draft regulation and a reader-friendly version on its
website. The deadline for public comments for the second draft regulation is March 30th, 2017. In the next few posts, I'll describe some of the key features of the second draft regulation.
One of the key goals of the amendments was to improve communication between condominiums and owners. The second regulation contains several provisions designed to do exactly that.
Information Certificates
The regulations detail the "Information Certificates" required by section 26.3 of the amendments to the Act. There will be three types of certificates:
- Periodic Information Certificates (PIC), which must be sent twice per year;
- Information Certificate Updates (ICU), which must be sent when certain events occur; and
- New Owner Information Certificates (NOIC), which must be sent to all new owners.
The forms for the certificates will be standard.
Most of the new information required by the certificates is information that most owners would consider important, like updates on legal proceedings. The rest of the information is similar to the information already included in status certificates.
There will be an option for condominiums with fewer than 25 units to opt out of the information certificate requirements provided a turnover meeting has been held and the owners of at least 80% of the units consent. The condominium must obtain the consent each year to dispense with the certificate requirements.
The regulations permit the condominium to post the certificates on a website so long as proper notice is sent to the owners. Intersestingly, the regulations require that the notice is in English or French. This will be a big change for some condominiums.
Record of Owners & Notice to Owners
The second draft regulation also describes the requirements for the record of owners and mortgagees and providing notice to the owners (ss.46.1 and 47).
There are details about the record of owners and mortgagees and how it will transition with the amendments. The owner's address shall be deemed to be the unit if there is no other address for the owner, or the address for service if one has been provided by the owner.
The regulations also set out details on how an owner may agree to receive electronic delivery of notices. There will be a standard form; it will include the name of the owner; a statement of the method of service selected by the condominium; and an acknowledgment that the owner would accept delivery in the condominium's chosen method.
The regulations also set out details on non-electronic delivery, such as delivering to the unit. A notice will be delivered if it is sent by prepaid mail to the address for the unit or the mailbox, sent by courier, or deposited in the mailbox.
This portion of the regulation is to come into force on July 1, 2017.
