February 2016
There are times when condo owners may disagree with the condo fees they are required to pay.
Regardless of how this is handled, condo owners do not have the option of withholding fees they are obligated to pay. Doing so creates an unfair burden on other condo owners.
A recent Ottawa case highlights this obligation.
An individual jointly owned 23 of the 33 condominium units in a condo building. This gave him majority voting rights in the corporation. These owners refused to pay their common fees and special assessments for a number of years. In total they owed $490,000 in common expenses.
Other owners were forced to finance the operations of the condo corporation through higher condo fees.
The legal action to recover these fees took five years.
The condo corporation was successful. They were awarded $790,000 which included nearly $200,000 for a court appointed auditor.
