The Condo Authority of Ontario is presently conducting an online public consultation on the fees it proposes to charge its users. You have until July 18, 2017 to make your opinion known. In the meantime, here are some of the results of our own survey.
Proposed fees to finance and operate the CAO
As of September 1, 2017, the Condo Authority of Ontario will be the designated Condo Authority in Ontario. Its mandate will be to provide education and condominium-related information and to oversee the Condo Authority Tribunal. Naturally, these entities will require funds to operate. Earlier this month, the CAO published the fees it proposes charging for its services:
- $12 per unit, per year – collected by condo corporations;
- $25 filing fees for parties wishing to access the Tribunal’s online dispute resolution system where they can negotiate in a neutral forum and resolve their dispute;
- $50 for the services of a dedicated Tribunal’s mediator who will attempt to settle the dispute in a collaborative manner between the parties;
- $125 to get a formal adjudication of the dispute by a member of the Tribunal.
Our Own Survey Results
For fun and to stimulate a conversation, we also conducted our own Survey on the topic. Below are some of the results.
Who should pay for the CAO?
We asked our readers who they feel should finance the CAO and CAT:
40% of you were of the view that it was fair to impose these costs on condo owners as they were the ones benefiting from these services
34% of you were of the view that the province should finance this services, the same way it finances entities such as the Landlord and tenant board/tribunal and other such tribunals and commissions
26% of you were of the view that the actual users of these services should pay for these services.
Is the $1 per unit / per month fee reasonable?
We asked our readers how they felt about the proposed universal fee of $1 per unit, per month:
66% of you were of the view that it was reasonable
9% of you were of the view that it was too high
3% of you expected it to be more
How do you expect this fee will evolve over time?
Finally, we asked our readers how they expected this universal fee to evolve over time:
57% of you expected it to increase over time
43% of you expected it to remain the same and to be sufficient to finance the CAO’s activities
*It is important to note that the above are not the results of the CAO’s survey. These only reflect the answers received to our informal survey.
How do you feel about the above results? Do they reflect your own views? If you have not done so already, now is the time for you to complete the only survey that matters: the CAO’s survey. You have 24 hours to do so.
