April 2018
The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) is a new organization providing a host of resources and information for condo owners, residents, managers and directors in support of positive condominium living in the province. As part of its services, the CAO is launching a new public registry of all condominium corporations in Ontario this month. Robin Dafoe, Chief Executive Officer and Registrar of the CAO, provided the following responses to questions about the public registry for Toronto Condo News.
What is the CAO’s public registry?
The public registry is an online database of information gathered from the more than 11,000 condominium corporations across Ontario, available on the CAO’s website at www.condoauthorityontario.ca.
Where does the information for the public registry come from?
The Condominium Act, 1998 and Ontario Regulation 377/17 requires all condo corporations to file returns with the CAO. “Filing a condo return” means providing specified key information about the corporation. All corporations must have filed an annual return by March 31, unless they were created after January 1st, and then they have 90 days from the date they were created to file a return. There are, however, other types of returns that must be filed depending on when the corporation was created and when the turn-over meeting occurred. Data in the public registry was submitted to the CAO as part of this returns process.
Who is required to file a return?
All condominium corporations in Ontario must file returns and notices of change. A notice of change is filed with the CAO when information filed in a return has changed.
Why was the public registry launched?
The Condominium Act, 1998, requires that the CAO maintain a publicly available and searchable database containing the most current information filed in returns and notices of change for every condo corporation in Ontario.
What information is published?
The public registry will display information prescribed in Ontario Regulation 377/17 that condo corporations provide through the filing of condo returns and notices of change with the CAO.
This includes basic information about the condo corporation, such as the address for service for the corporation, and the names of condo directors and managers. The CAO is required to maintain and publish this searchable public registry moving forward.
How will information in the public registry be used?
The public registry is intended for owners, residents, buyers and other members of the condominium community and public to look up information about an individual corporation that is prescribed in the regulation.
The public registry cannot be used for commercial purposes. Bulk exports or summaries of the information in the registry will not be provided. No email addresses provided to the CAO as part of a condo return will be published, nor will any personal information about directors, other than their names and the start dates of their terms on the board.
For more information please visit www.condoauthorityontario.ca.
