Condo Board Must Balance Private and Communal Interests of Unit Owners
According to the owner, Ms. Wu, her condo shook like an earthquake and sounded like a freight train - for six years. Apparently, the first six months she owned it, everything was fine. Then the noise and vibration problems developed and living there became practically unbearable. This situation started a lengthy dispute between Ms. Wu and the condo board over the extent of the problem and potential remedies. Not surprisingly, after almost seven years of complaints, the matter ended up before a judge.
The condo board had conducted a series of investigations including sound testing of Ms. Wu's unit. Eventually, it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on investigation but failed to come up with any actual remedies. Frankly speaking, it appears that the board saw Ms. Wu as a problem unit owner who exaggerated her complaints.
The court was troubled primarily by the lack of evidence regarding potential remedies. A condo board is obligated to balance the competing interests of the individual unit owners and the communal interests of all unit owners. It's failure to find a potential solution and to weigh the costs of that solution in the context of maintaining the common elements of the condominium proved decisive. The board was ordered to pay Ms. Wu damages of $30,000.
The Lesson: As a condo board, you are obligated to ascertain whether there is a legitimate problem, what the potential costs to resolve it are and whether those costs are reasonable. It is imperative that the board keep minutes of the meetings at which the problem is discussed.
Wu v Peel Condominium Corporation No. 245, 2015 ONSC 2801 https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2015/2015onsc2801/2015onsc2801.html?autocompleteStr=wu%20peel%20condo&autocompletePos=1
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