Solutions for Owners
If you submitted a Request for Records and the condominium corporation did not respond within 30 days, you can contact a representative of the condominium corporation (e.g., a condominium director, manager or any other person that handles the corporation’s records).
Your corporation may not be aware of your request or may be having difficulties in responding. By contacting them, you may be able to prompt your condominium corporation to respond and / or discuss and potentially resolve the issue without the need to file an application with the CAT.
If you do not feel comfortable speaking to the condominium corporation’s representatives in person, or if you’ve spoken to them already and the issue has not been resolved, you may want to send them a letter. You can use our letter templates, which you can find under the Helpful Resources section at the bottom of this page.
If you contact your condominium corporation, then you may wish to keep notes describing:
- Which representative(s) of the condominium corporation you contacted;
- The date(s) and time(s) that you spoke/wrote to these representatives;
- What issues you informed them of; and,
- The amount of time (if any) you provided them to address the issue.
Your notes or copies of communications may be important if you have to file an application with the CAT. In this kind of case, it may help your application if you can show that you gave the condominium corporation a reasonable chance to respond to your Request for Records.
2. Determine how you will respond
After you have contacted the condominium corporation, you should be able to determine if the condominium corporation intends to respond to your request.
If you have given the condominium corporation a reasonable opportunity to respond and they have not done so, you can send a follow-up letter or email about this issue. You can use our Second Letter template, which you can find under the Helpful Resources section at the bottom of this page.
You should keep a copy of your letter/email and note the date and time that you sent it.
If the condominium corporation does not resolve your dispute, you can prepare to file an application with the CAT.
Note: If you submit a Request for Records to your condominium corporation and they do not provide you with a response within 30 days, you can file an application with the CAT within 6 months of the day you delivered your Request for Records. If you do not file an application with the CAT within 6 months, your request will be considered abandoned.
What if these steps don’t resolve my issue?
If you have given the condominium corporation a reasonable opportunity to respond to your Request for Records but you have not received a reply, you can file an application with the CAT.
Visit Step #4 – Condominium Authority Tribunal for more information.
Have a question?
1. Confirm the issue
Condominium unit owners, purchasers and mortgagees are entitled to access and request copies of the condominium corporation’s records.
However, section 55 (4) of the Condominium Act specifies that owners, purchasers, and mortgagees do not have a right to access records (or portions of a record) that contain:
- personal information about employees of the condominium corporation (other than the employee’s employment contract);
- records relating to current or pending legal actions, including litigation or insurance investigations; or,
- personal information about specific units or owners.
If your condominium corporation refuses to provide you with a record that you have requested, they are required to indicate the reason on the Board’s Response to Request for Records. Your condominium corporation’s response should clearly indicate why you are not entitled to the record, and the specific provision of the Condominium Act that your board is relying on to justify the refusal.
If you think you are entitled to the records, you should carefully review the reasons provided.
2. Contact the Condominium corporation
If your condominium corporation has refused to provide you with records that you have requested, you can contact a representative of the condominium corporation (e.g., a condominium director, manager or any other person that handles the corporation’s records).
By contacting them, you may be able to discuss and potentially resolve the issue without the need to file an application with the CAT.
If you do not feel comfortable speaking to the condominium corporation’s representatives in person, or if you’ve spoken to them already and the issue has not been resolved, you may want to send them a letter. You can use our letter templates, which you can find under the Helpful Resources section at the bottom of this page.
If you contact your condominium corporation, then you may wish to keep notes describing:
- Which representative(s) of the condominium corporation you contacted;
- The date(s) and time(s) that you spoke / wrote to these representatives;
- What issues you informed them of; and,
- The amount of time (if any) you provided them to address the issue.
Your notes or copies of communications may be important if you have to file an application with the CAT. In this kind of case, it may help your application if you can show that you gave the condominium corporation a reasonable chance to respond to your Request for Records.
What if contacting the condominium corporation did not resolve my issue?
If you have taken these steps and your issue still hasn’t been resolved, then you may be able to file an application with the CAT.
Visit Step #4 – Condominium Authority Tribunal for more information.
Have a Question?
1. Confirm the issue
If you believe your condominium corporation is not keeping adequate records, your first step will typically be to obtain a copy of the records so you can see them yourself.
- If you suspect that your condominium corporation’s records are inadequate, but you have not seen them / do not have a copy of them yourself you can submit a Request for Records for those records to your condominium corporation. Once you have received the records, you can review them.
For more information, check out our step-by-step guide to Requesting Core Records and Requesting Non-Core Records.
- If you already have access to or copies of the records and you believe they are inadequate, proceed to Step 2 below.
The Meaning of Adequacy
Under section 55 (1) of the Condominium Act, all condominium corporations are required to maintain adequate records.
A condominium corporation’s records may not be adequate if:
- The records should exist but they don’t (either because they were never created or because they were not kept or destroyed);
- The records do not include information that they should;
- The records do not accurately reflect what happened.
Here are a few examples:
- Imagine you request the minutes of your condominium corporation’s board meetings and your condominium corporation responds by telling you that they do not keep or did not create minutes. Since your condominium corporation must keep these minutes, this would be an adequacy issue.
- Imagine you request the minutes for your condominium corporation’s board meetings for the last year. You receive the records and discover that at one meeting, the board made a decision that you disagree with. This is not an adequacy issue.
2. Contact the Condominium corporation
You may wish to contact a representative of the condominium corporation (e.g., a condominium director, manager or any other person that handles the corporation’s records) to discuss your concerns.
The condominium corporation’s representative may be able to explain why a record may not exist, or why it may not contain what you think it should.
You may also discuss how the corporation could improve how they create or provide records to unit owners going forward. This discussion may address your concerns without needing to file an application with the CAT.
If you do not feel comfortable speaking to the condominium corporation’s representatives in person, or if you’ve spoken to them already and the issue has not been resolved, you may want to send them a letter. You can use our letter templates, which you can find under the Helpful Resources section at the bottom of this page.
If you have contacted the condominium corporation, then you may wish to keep notes describing:
- Which representative(s) of the condominium corporation you contacted;
- The date(s) and time(s) that you spoke/wrote to these representatives;
- What issues you informed them of; and,
- The amount of time (if any) you provided them to address the issue.
Your notes or copies of communications may be important if you have to file an application with the CAT.
What if contacting the corporation did not resolve my issue?
If you have taken these steps and your issue still hasn’t been resolved, then you may be able to file an application with the CAT.
Visit Step #4 – Condominium Authority Tribunal for more information.
Have a Question?
Your first step is to review the costs that the condominium corporation is charging for your request. When your condominium corporation sends you the Board’s Response to a Request for Records it must include a breakdown of how much money the condominium corporation is charging for:
- printing and copying;
- labour; and,
- delivery.
The amounts that the corporation may charge will depend on the types and formats of the requested records.
If the request was for core records:
- Condominium corporations can only charge requesters a limited fee for copies of or access to or core records.
- If a requester asks for a paper copy of a core record, the condominium corporation can only charge a maximum of 20¢ per page.
- If a requester asks for an electronic copy of a core record but the condominium corporation does not keep that record electronically, the condominium corporation can provide a paper copy but must provide the records at no cost. That means they cannot charge any costs, even for printing and photocopying.
If the request was for non-core records:
- Condominium corporations can charge requesters a fee to access / for copies of the requested records. This fee must represent a reasonable estimate of the labour, photocopying / printing (20¢ per page max), and delivery costs the condominium corporation expects to incur when providing the records in their requested format.
- Note: If a requester wants an electronic copy of a record but the condominium corporation does not keep that record electronically, the condominium corporation can provide a paper copy and charge the costs associated with providing the record.
These amounts are set out under section 13.3 of O. Reg. 48/01.
2. Contact the Condominium corporation
You may wish to contact a representative of the condominium corporation (e.g., a condominium director, manager or any other person that handles the corporation’s records) to discuss the costs the corporation is changing for the records and whether your condominium corporation might reconsider.
By contacting a representative of your condominium corporation, you may be able to better understand the costs associated with obtaining the requested records. This is an opportunity for you and the corporation to discuss the costs of the records and potentially resolve the issues without needing to file an application with the CAT.
If you do not feel comfortable speaking to the corporation’s representatives in person, or if you’ve spoken to them already and the issue has not been resolved, you may want to send them a letter. You can use our letter templates, which you can find under the Helpful Resources section at the bottom of this page.
If you have contacted the condominium corporation, then you may wish to keep notes describing:
- Which representative(s) of the condominium corporation you contacted;
- The date(s) and time(s) that you spoke / wrote to these representatives;
- What issues you informed them of; and,
- The amount of time (if any) you provided them to address the issue.
Your notes or copies of communications may be important if you have to file an application with the CAT.
What if contacting the corporation did not resolve my issue?
If you have taken these steps and still disagree on the fee you are being charged to access the records, then you may be able to file an application with the CAT.
Visit Step #4 – Condominium Authority Tribunal for more information.
Have a question?