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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