June 2018
Serving as a condo director can be a thankless job. Individuals rarely receive the recognition they deserve. Condo directors may tire of abuse and retire from this role or choose not to serve another term.
What happens when nobody want to serve as a condo director?
When nobody wants to fill a position up for election, the individual currently serving as a director can continue until a replacement becomes available. If the current director declines to continue in the role there remains an unfilled vacancy on the board. The situation becomes more serious when the director is also an officer; president, secretary, treasurer or possibly vice president. These individuals have specific roles in a condo corporation as detailed in governing documents. A vacancy may mean nobody is available to sign cheques, enter into contracts with vendors or manage the condo corporation’s bank accounts.
Should a current director resign and nobody is available to replace them, there may be consequences if the condo board is unable to achieve quorum. Quorum is defined in a condo corporation’s governing documents but is likely to mean more than 50% of directors on a board. For a condo corporation requiring five directors, quorum is likely to mean three individuals must be serving and in attendance at any directors meeting for them to legally conduct day-to-day business.
Denise Lash, of Lash Condo Law, explains a more problematic situation. “In the event nobody is willing to serve as a condo director, the courts could step in and appoint an administrator to manage the affairs of the condo corporation. The costs of an administrator can be substantially higher than the costs that owners would have been paying when volunteer directors were in place. The administrator costs are paid out of monthly common expenses and would likely result in some financial hardship to the owners.” Money needed for maintenance or other purposes would be repurposed to pay for services that have been assumed to be voluntary.
Condo communities with individuals willing to serve as directors are always preferable. Those communities which have alienated residents and made it unnecessarily difficult for directors willing to serve can find the alternative disappointing.
