Modernizing condominium laws

Overview

Bill 19, the Condominium Property Amendment Act, 2022, would reduce the financial risk for condominium owners and corporations and make meetings more efficient.

If passed, Bill 19 will reduce financial risk by allowing condominium corporations to charge back costs related to damages to the owner responsible for causing them without going to court, preventing those costs from being passed on to other owners through increased condominium fees or insurance premiums. It would also enable a new, simpler voting option to speed-up routine processes at annual general meetings

Proposed changes were informed by feedback received from key stakeholder organizations representing condominium owners, boards, managers, and lawyers.

Key changes

If passed, Bill 19 will amend the Condominium Property Act to:

Charge back owners for damage

• enable corporations to charge back costs related to repairs for damages as a result of an owner or occupant or a person the owner or occupant is responsible for as per the regulations
  • These damage chargebacks would be the actual cost of repair including related costs, or the amount of the insurance deductible, whichever is less. An insurance claim does not need to be made in order to charge the amount of the deductible.
• allow damage chargebacks to include reasonable administrative costs, related service costs, insurance deductibles, and reasonable legal fees
• enable corporations to treat damage chargebacks the same way as unpaid contributions are treated – can be added as a caveat on title if the owner does not pay
• set out in regulation the requirements and transparent procedure for fairly assigning chargebacks, as well as a way for people to contest the chargeback

Enable simpler voting methods

• enable a simple, owner-based method of voting in condominium corporation meetings in addition to the existing provision for unit-factor votes
• enable corporations to establish an alternative to owner votes, such as one vote per unit, in bylaws
• allow owners to request a vote by unit-factor prior to the results of an owner vote being announced
• clarify that, for a special resolution, unit factors owned by the corporation vote with the majority

Other clarifying provisions

• replace references to the former 'Building Assessment Report' with the 'Converted Property Study', which was established on July 1, 2021
• move provisions respecting responsibility for doors and windows from the regulation into the Act, to have all provisions outlining responsibility for property in one place
• remove expired provisions related to updating bylaws

Learn more about the proposed changes:

• Bill 19: Condominium Property Amendment Act – Fact Sheet

Next steps

Amendments will be proclaimed after the development of supporting regulations.

News

• Changing condo laws to save Albertans time, money (April 21, 2022)