Voters can unseat rogue condo president
The president of our five-person board has bullied her way into having total control. She hired lawyers to convince the one remaining director, who wouldn’t knuckle under, to resign so that the corporation would not incur more legal fees. Can she do this? Can the resigned director run again at the next AGM? And how can the owners get rid of the president?
The president had no right to force the director to resign, even with the support of a board resolution — which she likely did not have.
The resigned director can stand for election to the board at the next annual general meeting. And the owners can get rid of the president by successfully voting for someone who runs against her if she stands for re-election when her term expires. Owners of 15 per cent of the units could also requisition an owners’ meeting to vote on her removal as a director before the completion of her term. It will require an affirmative vote for removal by the owners of more than 50 per cent of the units in the condominium. I own two units in the same building, using one as my home and the other as a rental. I am planning to sell the rental unit but would like to sell it with the smaller parking unit (it’s now the parking space for my home condo) and retain the larger parking unit for myself. Can I do that?
Unless the declaration requires you to sell the larger parking unit with the rental condo, there is no reason why the purchaser of the rental unit cannot agree to buy the smaller parking unit. While I was away at the cottage, a board member entered my condo with an acquaintance of hers to touch up the paint on my balcony railings. Can she do that?
If the declaration did not state that balcony maintenance is your responsibility, it would be the obligation of the corporation. The corporation would then be entitled to enter your balcony to carry out the painting, provided that the board authorized the entry by the director and her acquaintance and you were given reasonable written notice of an entry at a reasonable time.
If balcony maintenance is your obligation, the corporation could only enter your unit or exclusive-use common elements to paint if you failed to perform the painting within a reasonable time after discovering that it was necessary and if your failure presents a potential risk of damage to the property or a potential risk of personal injury to persons on the property. Unit owners in our building submitted a requisition for an owners’ meeting to discuss inadequacies in the management of the condo. A covering letter with the requisition stated that although more than 15 per cent of the owners signed the requisition, the owners do not want the condo to incur the cost of the meeting. Rather, they wish to attend a board meeting to voice our concerns which we listed. The president advised us that we had to go through with the requisitioned meeting. Is that correct?
The board is not obligated to have representatives of the owners attend a board meeting. If the board refuses such attendance at a board meeting, it must comply with the requisition and call the owners’ meeting. Lawyer Gerry Hyman is a former president of the Canadian Condominium Institute and author of Condominium Handbook. Send questions to gerry@gerryhyman.com or fax to his attention at 416-925-8492.