Province enacts new measures to protect Alberta condo owners

The province has announced new protections for Alberta condo owners, including a dispute tribunal. CTV News Edmonton's Miriam Valdes-Carletti has the story.

The province is putting in place new rules to increase transparency and strengthen protections for condo owners.

All new condos will be required to have a mandatory technical analysis completed by an independent engineer or architect, paid by the developer, within four years of occupancy.

A statement from the Alberta government said this will help give condo owners clear information about the condition of a building and future repair costs.

Dale Nally, Minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction said 30 per cent of Albertans are condo owners.

“We’ve been hearing from them for a while now that they’re looking to strengthen protections, improve transparency and to improve governance,” said the minister in an interview.

A new condo dispute resolution tribunal will launch this spring to provide owners and boards with an alternative to the courts.

“This is important because, with so many Albertans owning condos, the only recourse they have if they have a dispute with their corporation is to go to court,” said Nally. “That can be costly and it can be time consuming.”

He said the tribunal will give affordable and timely access to justice for condo owners.

Lawyer Roberto Noce said the tribunal has been a long time coming after the province first announced its intention to implement one in 2014. But today, it is still limited in what it can do.

“It has limited jurisdiction to deal with matters in a condominium setting,” he said. “It deals with fines … It will have the ability to force condominiums to give owners information they may have requested … The final thing are any issues that may arise at an annual general meeting or a special meeting of the owners on any particular topic.”

Noce suspects that over time, the government will evaluate how the tribunal is working and expand its jurisdiction to remove things from the court system if it’s operating effectively.

“Right now there aren’t a lot of people, if any at all, who are challenging fines of $200 or $400 through the court system … it’s too expensive to go through that process,” said Noce. “I don’t think we’re going to see much of a change in terms of the court system right away, but we can in the future if they start to expand the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

“We’ll wait and see if that’s the ultimate objective of the government.”

Katy Campbell, executive director of the Canadian Condominium Institute (CCI) North Alberta Chapter, said it’s an exciting day for the condo community.

“This is something folks in the condo community have been advocating for for well over a decade, and we’ve seen the tribunal be very effective in other jurisdictions such as B.C. and Ontario,” said Campbell.

She said they are hopeful for a faster, less expensive and more accessible avenue for justice that condo owners can utilize.

“I think people will have more reassurance when they’re purchasing a condo, especially with that technical analysis piece,” said Campbell.

Other measures put in place by the province include:

• Chargebacks are now treated like condominium contributions, with a clear process, capped costs (up to $50,000) and a 30-day right of appeal.
• General meetings may use a simple vote, with one vote per owner unless a unit-factor vote is requested.
• Owners gain earlier representation on interim boards once 25 per cent of units are sold.
• Courts may award costs when actions against board members are unsuccessful, and insurance claims are not required to recover costs up to the deductible.
• Technical analysis requirements apply only to new condominiums occupied after the coming-into-force date.
• Starting in 2026, a $9 yearly service fee per unit along with user-paid application fees, will sustainably fund the Condominium Dispute Resolution Tribunal.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Miriam Valdes-Carletti and Jeremy Thompson