Contents   References   Previous   Next

Links
Government phone numbers
Condo information sites
Excellent blogs by Realtors
Property manager blog
Condominium services
Are You Sure You Want to Buy That condo?
Newspaper columnists
Airbnb & short-term rentals
Property management companies
Personal comments
Condo industry magazines
Robert's Rules of Order
Condominium corporations
Condo renovation companies


Government phone numbers
211
for information about community, social and health services if you don’t know where to turn with a problem.

Residents are encouraged to call 211 for information about health, social and community services. For example, you can call 211 if you are a newcomer to Canada and are looking for employment training or you are concerned about a family member with an addiction and need information about available programs. You can also call 211 if you need information about a food bank, mental health support or a non-emergency police contact number.
311
to get information about City services and programs such as garbage collection, water service, graffiti removal, reporting violations of city building standards and recreational skating locations.

Customer service representatives also have access to over-the-phone interpreters who can speak more than 180 languages. 311 is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
911
for a medical emergency, or threats or harm to a person or property that require immediate police, fire or paramedic services.

Condo information sites

Canadian Condo Information Centre
For Owners and Future Owners
This is an excellent website for condo owners. It covers almost everything that an owner needs to know. It has not been updated in a while.
http://condoinformation.ca/


StrataWatch
Here is a BC condo website that is fascinating. Along with rating BC condo management companies, they publish the names of the condo managers that have been disciplined by the Real Estate Council of BC for professional misconduct.
http://www.stratawatch.ca/#

Condominium Home Owners' Association of B.C. (CHOA)
For BC condo owners, strata corporations and industry companies.
http://www.choa.bc.ca/

Alberta condominiums
A website that gives condo owners information on condo living in Alberta.
http://www.albertacondominiums.ca/home-1.html

Condo Law For Albertans
Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta's website provides legal information for Alberta consumers who are thinking about buying a condo, currently living in one, or considering selling or renting their condo.
http://www.condolawalberta.ca/

Condo Savvy Alberta
Knowledge is Power!
http://condosavvy.boards.net/

Tony GioventuI
Tony is the executive director and strata property adviser for the Condominium Home Owners' Association of B.C. (CHOA) He gives advice to condo owners in this newspaper column.
Note:
The Condo Act in BC has differences from Ontario's Act so not all of his advice applies to Ontario condos.
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/author/tony-gioventu

Here is a second column that Tony Gioventul writes:
http://www.timescolonist.com/authors?author=Tony%20Gioventu

Better Condo Life
A blog written by a condo owner and a director. It describes the frustrations of condo life and how you can improve your condo corporation.
http://bettercondolife.com/

The Greater Fool
Garth Turner writes this blog to warn Canadians that home ownership is not a wise investment. His predictions of gloom and doom in the real estate market have not yet happened, aside from Calgary.

Most real estate agents really hate this guy.
http://www.greaterfool.ca/

Canadians For Properly Built Homes
While there are good builders in Canada, there are also marginal builders and poor builders in Canada. Currently Canadians have no reliable, objective means of knowing who the good builders are.
http://www.canadiansforproperlybuilthomes.com/index.html

CCI Toronto
A condominium industry organization that gives training programs for directors on condominium boards.
http://ccitoronto.org/news/current-news

Vancouver Island Strata Owners Association
http://www.visoa.bc.ca/

Strata Advocate
This BC website is provided as a tool for concerned strata owners to inform themselves and make representations to government and the media for the purpose of obtaining legislation that is long overdue.
http://www.strataadvocate.ca/index.html

Look up Strata
An Australian strata (condo) website.
https://www.lookupstrata.com.au/

Airbnb Hell
AirbnbHell.com is dedicated to helping Hosts and Guests share their stories about the risks and dangers of using Airbnb.
http://www.airbnbhell.com/

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Realtor blogs

Toronto Reality Blog
by Doug Fleming
Doug's blog is well written and he has a good sense of humour. He specializes in writing about condos in downtown Toronto.
http://www.torontorealtyblog.com/

Condo Scene
by Marilyn Wilson
Marilyn Wilson is an Ottawa-based Realtor who writes a very interesting column on condominiums.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/search/search.html?q=condo+scene


Urbaneer
A team of Realtors with Bosley Real Estate Ltd have a very nice site. Be sure to check out their Blog for interesting articles and restaurant reviews.
http://www.urbaneer.com

An interesting Realtor website
This site gives you an idea how many units sold and the price range that they went for for most condos in the GTA. Looking at the chart at the bottom of the page lets you know the prices for the last six years so you can get an idea if prices are going up or down.
http://www.gtacondo.com/

Better Dwelling
Canadian real estate website keeping us up-to-date on the news.
https://betterdwelling.com/

Simplycondos Blog

Charles Hanes, a real estate broker, wrote a daily blog about Toronto's condo market. While many of his postings advertises his services, this blog is not your ordinary real estate website.

Charles names troubled condo buildings, "a developer that I would recommend no-one to deal with" and poor performing property management companies. He explains what a "dog" unit is and the importance of having a competent board of directors. There is a lot of information on his blog.

Read through all his old postings to find nuggets of valuable information.
http://simplycondos.blogspot.ca/
    (This site has been taken down April 2015)

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Property manager blog
Kevin Middleton, a condo property manager in Ontario, started this blog in spring 2016.
http://acondomanager.blogspot.ca/

Landlord Rescue
Great resource for rental units in condos.
http://bit.ly/2efybB6

Associa
An American HOA/condominium management company that has offices in western Canada and now in the GTA. They have good articles for condo directors and owners.
http://blog.associaonline.com/

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Condominium services


Condominium Authority of Ontario
Welcome! The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) is pleased to launch an initial website to introduce ourselves. New government legislation is underway that would establish the CAO as a new administrative authority whose proposed mandate includes supporting positive and healthy condo communities by offering education for condo directors and by helping resolve condo disputes.

We look forward to serving condominium owners, corporations and the broader condominium community if designated by the Lieutenant Governor in Council and our services are in place, which is expected to be later in 2017.
http://www.condoauthorityontario.ca/

Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario
The Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario (CMRAO) is pleased to launch an initial website to introduce ourselves. New government legislation is underway that would establish the CMRAO as a new administrative authority whose proposed mandate would include supporting positive and healthy condo communities through the licensing and regulation of condo managers and condominium management providers.
http://www.cmrao.ca/

Potek Power
Potek Power is an electrical bill auditing service. If they find that an Ontario condo corporation was over billed during the previous two years, they receive half of the refund as their fee. If they find nothing, the condo pays nothing. Even then, the condo gets a one-page report on their electrical billing.
http://www.poteckpower.com/

Eagle Audit
Assisting condos to prevent waste, theft and fraud
http://www.eagleaudit.ca/

Cass and Fraser Chartered Accountants
Cass and Fraser Chartered Accountants provides accounting and auditing services to condominium and strata corporations in Alberta and British Columbia.

This website has a lot of good information for condo directors and owners financial matters especially on fraud prevention.
http://www.cassfraser.ca/home/

Clear Path Engineering Inc.
Engineering consultants for condos/strata corporations in Alberta and BC.
http://www.clearpathengineering.ca/

Get Quorum
A company that runs an electronic proxy voting program.
https://getquorum.com/

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Newspaper columns

Robert Noce, Edmonton Journal
Here is the "Condo Questions" collection from the Edmonton Journal written by Robert Noce, an Alberta lawyer that specializes in condominium law.
http://bit.ly/1Plq1QL

Yourhome.ca—condo law

Gerry Hyman, a condominium lawyer, has an excellent questions and answer column in the Toronto Star.
Gerry Hyman

Condo Culture
A newspaper question and answer forum for condo owners.
http://life.nationalpost.com/tag/condo-culture/

Yourhome.ca—real estate
Bob Aaron has a regular real estate column in the Toronto Star.
At the bottom of his column he states:
Full disclosure: I am the chair of Tarion’s consumer advisory panel and a former board member.
Bob Aaron

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Airbnb

Short-term Consequences
Examining the impacts of Airbnb and other short-term rental services on tenants, housing, and cities
http://bit.ly/1qJJRQZ

Inside Airbnb
Adding data to the debate
http://insideairbnb.com/index.html

fairbnb.ca
A new coalition called “Fairbnb.ca” launched its campaign to bring legal fairness to the growing ‘homeshare’ market in Canada. The Coalition has launched in Toronto, where Airbnb and similar firms have seen a rapid change in their business practices.
http://fairbnb.ca/

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Property management companies

Dickenson Management
A London Ontario property management company has a nice News section with good articles for condo residents. Contains real articles, not info-ads.
http://www.dickenson.ca/news/

Larlyn
This site has blogs, Q&A and educational webinars and e-books.
http://www.larlyn.com/regions/central-ontario-toronto/

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Personal comments

Why I Think Condos Suck
A property manager gives his opinions on why he thinks condos suck especially as investment properties.
http://canadianmoneyforum.com

He just doesn't get it
Here is a log by an owner who is upset because his condo board will not let him park his third vehicle in the visitors' parking.
http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread/t-112823.html

Owners Alliance 215
A condo owner is battling with his board over fee increases and election issues.
http://ownersalliance.blogspot.ca/


Condo magazines

Condo Business Magazine
This is a good condo magazine and this section has very good articles on condo legal issues.
http://www.reminetwork.com/condobusiness/legal/

Toronto Condo News
Toronto Condo News magazine is a monthly magazine that is specific and directed to residents of residential condominiums in Toronto.
http://www.tocondonews.com/


Robert's Rules of Order
The "official site" for Robert's Rules of Order. This guide to how to preside over meetings is now in its 11th edition.
http://www.robertsrules.com/


Condominium websites

HCC # 363
Waterford Place
Residents Manual Updated_July 26 2007.pdf

MTCC # 878
The Vogue Condominiums
http://www.thevoguecondominiums.ca/

MTCC 1170
Another very informative condominium corporation website.
http://www.mtcc1170.com/index.html

New Town of York
An extremely well designed and informative condominium website.
https://sites.google.com/site/135georgesouth/

TSCC #1431
The Maytower II is on Lee Centre Drive in Scarborough. It is a tower complex that shares its common elements with Maytower I.

This site has been built and maintained by the board of directors to keep the owners informed and is a very impressive website.
http://www.maytower.ca/

YCC 41
Markham Glen has a well designed website.
http://ycc41.com/index.html

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Condo renovation companies

Kandy Outdoor Flooring
A nice blog on condo issues. It has ideas on making a lovely balcony
http://www.outdoorflooring.ca/blog


C-Wood
C-Wood is a custom kitchen cabinet maker based in Scarborough. We had a new pantry, a new closet and a wall cabinet for the walk-in closet built by them and we were very pleased with their work, price and delivery.

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