Condo management structure

The condo corporation has the following management structure:


Owners
The owners elect directors to the board for a three-year term. Their terms are staggered so there is an election held for at least one director at every Annual General Meeting (AGM).

In theory, the owners also appoint the corporation's auditor, for a one year term, and fix the auditor's compensation at the AGM, or at a Special Owners Meeting.

Board of directors
The Act gives a condominium board of directors enormous power—from setting the annual budget to hiring and terminating contractors, employees, property managers and other agents of the corporation to deciding on when the windows should be replaced.

The board also acts as the "landlord" as it is responsible for enforcing the corporation's declaration, by-laws and rules and insuring that all necessary repairs are done to all the common elements.

The board is made up of three to seven members and they are legally responsible for running the corporation. They are unpaid volunteers, usually but not necessarily, unit owners or residents, who are elected for a three-year term by the unit owners.

They meet monthly (usually) and they hire the property management company that will run the day-to-day business of the corporation. The manager answers to the board. The board will also hire an auditor (subject to the owners’ approval), a condo law firm and a building engineering company. It will also insure that the property has sufficient insurance in place.
 
The board plans annual budgets and decides if there will be a fee increase or if money needs to be raised by a Special Assessment. The owners have no say in this and will be notified a written notice sent by regular mail.
 
The board also decides on changes or modifications to the by-laws and rules and then informs the owners of the changes in writing. (The majority of owners, attending a meeting either in person or by proxy, must ratify all changes or additions to the by-laws.)

If there are shared facilities with one or more other corporations, the board appoints a director to sit on the shared facilities committee.

Officers
The directors appoints one of their number to be the president. They must also appoint a secretary and may also appoint a treasurer and a director of operations.

All of these officers, with the exception of president, may be a sitting director or any other person that the majority of the board decided upon.

Some management companies prefer the board to appoint a liason officer who is the one director that the board uses to pass on requests, complaints and suggestions to management inbetween the regular monthly board meetings.

Corporation lawyer
The corporation hires a law firm that specializes in condominium law to handle the condo’s legal issues. The law firm works for the corporation, not for the individual owners. That means he works for and takes instructions solely from the majority of directors on the board.

Property management
The property manager is the go-to person whenever an owner needs anything done. The property manager, who works for a property management company, runs the building. He or she deals with all the residents' complaints and overseas the work that all the contractors do on the common elements.

The management company also insures that there are no outstanding condo fees and that all the condo’s bills are being paid on time. The manager, with the board’s approval, hires and supervises most of the contractors.

Superintendent
The property superintendent works under the direction of the property manager and usually works days, five days a week. However, he may be on call for emergencies during his off-hours.

His job duties vary from one condo to another but usually includes replacing light bulbs, light painting, clearing jammed garbage compactors, taking care of the garbage bins on garbage day, light snow shoveling and coordinating maintenance work with the contractors.

He may or may not have the use of an apartment as part of his compensation.

Security guards or concierge
They are the staff that the owners will have the most contact with. They take their instructions from the property manager, not the owners.

The security guards man the lobby front desk, or a gatehouse, where they monitor traffic through the front lobby, watch the video cameras, greet visitors and tradesmen and maintain the logs for booking the amenities.

They also hand out visitor parking passes and may enforce the corporation’s parking rules by giving out warning tags, calling Parking Enforcement to ticket cars or having illegally parked cars towed. At some condos, the security guards can issue municipal parking tickets but must phone Parking Enforcement to have a vehicle towed.

During evenings and nights, guards may patrol the grounds, the parking garage and the residential hallways and staircases.

If an owner or owners have a noise complaint or any other issue with a resident, they should report the issue to security.

Security guards have important roles to play if there is a fire alarm or if 911 has been called. If an ambulance is on its way, the guard will put an elevator on service for the ambulance attendants and gives the attendants directions to the unit. Security also keeps a list of everyone needing assistance if there is a building evacuation.
 
Cleaners
Like the guards and the superintendent, the cleaners usually work for an outside contractor. This is so the corporation does not have any employees and therefore does not have to worry about income tax deductions, vacation pay, medical benefits or the employees joining a union.

The cleaners have the poorest paid job on the property and one of the worse.

Contractors
The board also hires contractors to do regular maintenance work and repairs for the corporation. Contract companies do the snow removal, landscaping, elevator service, heating and air conditioning, plumbing and fire alarm testing and servicing.

Engineering company
The board hires an engineering company to conduct a reserve fund study and conduct regular safety inspections of the building and the machinery. For example, the roof anchors need to be inspected annually.

The engineering company may also be asked to investigate problems such as the source of water penetration entering the building or to give advice on the purchase or repair of expensive equipment.

Auditor
On a yearly basis, the auditor examines the finances of the corporation and issues the audited annual financial statements. He is the only professional, who does work for the corporation, that is appointed by a vote of the owners.

He is also the only one who must answer questions by the owners on the basis he used to prepare his audit.

The trouble is that the owners cannot read the auditor’s report or the financial statements and most do not understand what the auditor is saying when he makes his annual report so they do not know what questions they should be asking. The second problem is that most owners do not attend the AGM so they neither heard the questions to the auditor or his answers.

A third concern is that the owners allow the board to hire the auditor, give instructions to the auditor and they allow the board to set the auditor's compensation so the auditor's loyalty is to the board.


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