The board’s duties

The biggest and most difficult job that board has is to deal with all members of the condo community; the employees, the contractors, the tenants and the owners fairly honestly and equally.

The board also needs to work with various interest groups that have different needs and objectives. This can be very stressful and it is very difficult to do well. The board has also got to deal fairly and honestly with its political opponents.

The board's duties are listed in the Condominiumm Act and in the by-laws.

Relations with the employees
Older condos usually have a live-in superintendent that has the use of a ground-floor apartment as part of his compensation. Some have an assistant superintendent who may also have the use of an apartment. The cleaners may also be employed directly by the corporation.

If a corporation has two or more employees, they can—and some did—join a union. That was a logical response to poor pay, working conditions, favourtism, job security or a combination of all three; especially job security.

The owners may put up with political infighting and being bullied, intimidated or insulted by the manager and board members but the employees will not.

A superintendent at one condominium sent the board of directors an e-mail stating in part:

“I reported a delay in receiving my weekly salary to one of the directors who advised me to contact my union because the management could not prepare a cheque for me. That is what I did. I called the union and explained the situation. Now I do not understand why the two directors say they are going to write me a letter of dismissal because I dared to ask about my salary. Don’t I have the right to claim my salary as nobody from the board of directors could explain the delay? But after the union intervened, two directors called me today October 13, to pick up the cheque and in the meantime they threatened me saying that they are going to terminate my contract because I complained to the union. I do not care about a director saying some days ago that they are able to buy the union for only $2,000 and the union will not handle my case anymore. If you guys want to buy the union, it is your choice. Please note that it was not appropriate to scream at me the way you did, that you are going to fire me only because I complained about the delay in the payment of my salary.”

A perfect example of why employees will look to a union for job security.

Newer condo corporations save themselves a lot of headaches by using off-site superintendents and cleaners provided by contract companies.

Relations with the contractors
It is a sign of a competent board when a condo corporation has long-term relationships with ethical and competent suppliers.

Of course, it is difficult or impossible for owners to judge the tradesmen’s workmanship but often you can get a feeling if the required work is being done in a timely manner and if a competent  job was done.

You may also be able to tell how reputable a company is by its name. It is not a good sign if the trucks are not identified with a company name and phone number and if the contracting companies have residential addresses listed as their business address. It is also troubling when you find out that the company has been registered for only a few months.

On the other hand, when the board regularly replaces contractors, security companies, cleaning and property management companies, it is a sign that the condo has an insecure and erratic board.

In one condo, they went through three property management companies, five property managers and four security guard companies and over a dozen guards in four years. The two cleaners kept their jobs because they were informers who snitched to president about everything they heard and saw.

At the next AGM, the owners cleaned house by replacing three of the directors. The new board quickly replaced yet another management company and the security company.

Relations with the owners
The property manager and the board members should have a good and respectful relationship with the majority of the owners. They need to insure that complaints from the residents and owners are resolved in a fair and timely manner.

However, the manager and the board have to enforce the Condominium Act, the declaration and all the by-laws, policies and rules and they have to take effective action when they are being ignored. They must also do everything in their power to insure that all owners are paying their fees in a prompt and regular manner.

None of this will make them popular with some of the owners so the board has to be able to accept hard feelings.

Relations with the other corporations
Got shared facilities? They can be a real pain.

Each condo corporation has equal representation on the shared facilities board of directors. Most shared facilities corporations require consensus to reach agreements. Any one corporation can veto any decisions that the other one, two or more corporations want passed.

If there is an impasse, the other corporations can request mediation or arbitration to break the veto. Many condos with shared facilities end up fighting it out in court.

The shared facilities corporation, assesses monthly common expense increases and it also needs to build up reserve funds. It needs to prepare audited financial statements and it too may levy special assessments. Yet, the owners do not vote for their condo's representative on the shared facilities board as their board of directors appoints the condo's representative.

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