With SIREG Management's licence suspended and the boards no longer acting, owners of the affected condos had three possible ways to get someone back in charge. On paper all three work. In practice, for most of these buildings, only one was expected to work quickly enough.
What are the three routes?
- A) Ask a court to appoint an administrator. An administrator is a person the court puts in charge of a condo corporation, with the powers of its board, until owners can elect directors again.
- B) Owners call their own meeting to elect a new board.
- C) A requisition: a formal written demand by owners asking the board to call a meeting.
Why the court route was seen as the fastest
- A court can appoint an administrator in roughly one to two weeks, and owners do not need to hold a vote first.
- Electing a board yourselves is possible, but it can take months. The new board would also start with no records, no manager and no court order behind it.
- A requisition depends on a board that answers it. Where the board is not acting, it does not solve the problem.
- Every month without anyone in charge is another month of condo fees that may never be collected.
What did it cost at the time?
The legal cost was estimated at about $35,000 plus HST per corporation, shared among the owners in that building who chose to take part. That estimate was cut to $10,000 per corporation the following day, when the lawyers changed their plan (see our October 9 update on the interim administrator).
