Condo violation letter template (Ontario)

Why the letter matters more than the conversation

Section 119 of the Condominium Act, 1998 requires every owner and occupier to comply with the Act, the declaration, the by-laws and the rules. Section 17(3) puts a matching duty on the corporation: the board must take reasonable steps to ensure compliance. A hallway conversation satisfies neither. A dated letter that cites the provision, describes the facts and sets a deadline satisfies both. If the dispute ever reaches mediation, arbitration or the Condominium Authority Tribunal, the first question will be what the corporation put in writing and when.

The 8 things every compliance letter needs

Check your draft against this list before it goes out:

• The corporation’s full legal name and the date of the letter.
• The owner’s name and the unit address, addressed to the owner even if a tenant caused the issue.
• The exact provision breached, quoted from the declaration, a by-law or a rule, with its section number.
• The facts: what was observed, on what date, by whom, in one or two plain sentences.
• What compliance looks like, stated so specifically that the owner cannot misunderstand it.
• A deadline. 14 days is common for most rule breaches. Safety issues under section 117 get shorter deadlines.
• What happens next if the deadline passes, including that legal and enforcement costs may be added to the unit under the indemnification provisions of the declaration.
• A named contact and a way to respond. Owners who can reply comply more often than owners who cannot.

One point trips up many new directors. Ontario condo corporations do not levy free-standing fines. A letter that threatens a “$100 fine” threatens something the board has no power to impose. What the corporation can recover is its actual costs, through the indemnification provisions in its declaration. Write the letter accordingly.

A sample letter you can copy

Replace the bracketed text with your own details. Keep the structure. It exists so that a stranger reading the file two years from now understands exactly what happened.

6 mistakes that weaken letters

• Citing no provision, or citing the wrong document. Quote the rule and its number.
• Threatening fines the corporation cannot impose. Refer to cost recovery under the declaration instead.
• Vague facts. “Ongoing issues with your balcony” proves nothing. One dated observation proves something.
• No deadline, or a deadline like “immediately” that a tribunal may read as unreasonable.
• Angry language. Letters get read aloud in hearings. Write every sentence as if a CAT member will read it, because one might.
• No record of delivery. A letter the corporation cannot prove was sent may as well not exist.

Send it so you can prove you sent it

Deliver the letter by a method you can document: email with a delivery record, registered mail, or hand delivery noted in writing with the date and the name of the person who delivered it. Then file the letter, the proof of delivery and any response together with the photos from the original observation. When the next board inherits the file, the whole story should be in one place. Three documents per incident is the minimum: the evidence, the letter, the proof of delivery.