Declaration provision can call for a dog ban
Our corporation prohibits dogs — including dogs belonging to my visiting children. Is that legal?
A rule may limit the number and size of dogs but a rule prohibiting all dogs is considered clearly unreasonable and unenforceable.
A declaration provision, however, can prohibit all dogs and that would include dogs belonging to visiting children of owners. Is there a statutory requirement for a management agreement with a condominium? Are there pitfalls if there is no contract? And if there is a contract, how often should it be renegotiated? Is there a limit to the amount of management fees?
There is no statutory requirement. The pitfalls for a corporation if there is no contract are the absence of agreement by the management company regarding its duties and its obligations to the corporation.
Renegotiation usually occurs a short time prior to the expiry of the term of the contract. If, however the corporation is entitled to terminate the contract before the expiry date on notice, the corporation may attempt to renegotiate the contract at any time rather that terminating the contract due to dissatisfaction with the management company’s performance.
The fees payable to the management company are not legislated but are a matter of negotiation between the parties. Does the law require that heat to a condominium unit be supplied by mid-October?
A City of Toronto bylaw provides that a landlord of a rental unit is responsible for providing heat to a residential dwelling at a minimum of 21 C between Sept. 15 and June 1 of each year. Two of our board members — who are also the president and the treasurer — are employed as superintendents of our building. The board has denied that they have a conflict of interest and that the arrangement is not prevented by the Condominium Act. Is the board right?
There is nothing in the Condominium Act prohibiting persons employed by the corporation as superintendents from being elected to the board. The Condominium Act deals with directors and officers who have a conflict of interest described as a direct or indirect interest in a contract or transaction to which the board is a party, or a proposed con- tract or transaction to which the corporation will be a party.
If the board, while those persons were directors, considered entering into contracts to hire them as superintendents — or subsequently considered the termination or renewal of their contracts — the two directors would have a conflict.
In those situations, the act requires them to disclose their conflicts at the directors’ meeting at which the contracts were first considered by the directors.
The two directors, however, would not be entitled to be present during the discussion relating to the super- intendents’ contracts or to vote, or to be counted in the quorum for such a vote.
In the event of such disclosure, or if there is a two-thirds approving vote of the contracts at a meeting of owners, the directors will not be accountable to the corporation for any profit or gain they realize from the contracts that would also not be voidable. Lawyer Gerry Hyman is a former president of the Canadian Condominium Institute and author of the Condominium Handbook. Send questions to gerry@gerryhyman.com or fax to his attention at 416-925-8492.