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Owners' Meetings
Answers to your questions about owners’ meetings held by your condo corporation.
Popular questions
Owners’ meetings can be used to raise important topics with your condo’s board of directors and other owners. The most common types include annual general meetings, owner-requisitioned meetings and turn-over meetings.
Typical AGMs serve as an avenue for the board to report on the condo’s financial standing and open dialogue about important issues, conduct and important condo business, such as appointing an auditor, electing or appointing board directors or major repairs or renovations.
Owners that the board call a meeting to vote on a particular topic, such as the removal of a director, voting on a proposed rule, or discussing an emerging issue. A quorum must be reached in order for the meeting to take place. The CAO’s Electronic Owners’ Meeting Guide can help you understand the different formats and methods for holding owner-requisitioned meetings.
A turn-over meeting is required after the developer no longer owns most of the units in the condo and transfers control of the corporation to a new owner-elected board of directors.
Owners can raise issues with their condo management or board anytime. They can also more formally requisition an owners’ meeting with their board to discuss or vote on a particular topic. Your request must describe the purpose of the meeting and must be signed by owners of at least 15 per cent of the voting units in the corporation and be delivered to the board. Owners who have lost the ability to vote because they have not paid their condo fees are not able to request meetings and cannot be counted in the required 15 per cent of voting units. There is a specific process for requesting an owners’ meeting, including a helpful requisition template.
Boards must respond to owners’ meeting requisitions within a certain time frame, including:
- Calling or hold an owners’ meeting within 35 days of receiving the requisition
- Sending a preliminary notice of meeting notice to all owners within five days of receiving the requisition
- Send a meeting notice to all owners within 15 days of the meeting.
The Condo Act sets specific requirements to ensure that owners are made aware of the timing and purpose of owners’ meetings.
Preliminary Notice of Meeting
- Must be delivered to owners in writing at least 20 days before the notice of meeting
- Lets owners know that the notice of meeting is coming
- States the purpose of meeting
Notice of Meeting
- Must be delivered to owners in writing at least 15 days prior to the day of the meeting
- Includes the date, time and meeting place or platform
- Identifies meeting agenda
Boards must send the preliminary notice and the notice of meeting using mandatory condo forms. No vote can take place on any item that was not disclosed in the notice of meeting, other than routine procedures.
Annual general meetings are critically important and provide an opportunity for boards to report on the condo’s financial health and open dialogue about other issues important to owners. The Condo Act requires corporations to present audited financial statements and the auditor’s report at AGMs and sets other Board directors are also typically elected at AGMs. Your condo corporation must hold their first AGM within three months of the condo being registered and within six months after the end of each fiscal year thereafter.
You have the right to take part in the shared governance of your condo community by voting on important issues at owners’ meetings. You can also appoint a proxy to vote on your behalf. Owners should familiarize themselves with their voting rights and methods of voting. Our Electronic Owners’ Meeting Guide has more information on different methods of voting, including electronic voting.
The CAO strongly encourages owners to attend owners’ meetings. When this is not possible, you can appoint anyone as your proxy to act on your behalf in these meetings. Proxies may be able to participate or vote depending on the kind of appointment you give them through the required proxy form.
Quorum means the numbers of owners or appointed proxies representing a certain percentage of units in the condo corporation who must be present at an owners’ meeting either in-person, virtually or by phone. No meeting or votes can take place without quorum. The Condo Acts deems owners or proxies who are present or vote at phone or virtual meetings to be counted towards a meeting quorum. The CAO’s Electronic Owners’ Meeting Guide outlines quorum requirements in more detail.
A turn-over meeting is when a condo developer or landowner turns the condo corporation over to a new owner-elected board. Developers must hold a turnover meeting 42 days after a majority of condo units are no longer owned by developers. Important documents are turned over to the condo corporation at this meeting and owners elect a new board. The standard quorum for a turn-over meeting is when owners who own at least 25 per cent of units are present. Voting, either personally or by appointing a proxy, can also take place at these meetings.