28/01/2021 – Jurisdiction Ontario
Part 73 published on 01/03/2021
Owner held responsible for deductible under corporation’s insurance. Corporation’s lien not out of time.
Smoke damage was caused to the owner’s unit when the owner left the unit with eggs cooking on the stove. The Court held that the owner was responsible for the $5000 deductible under the corporation’s insurance, in relation to the damage.
The Court said that the $5000 was properly added to the owner’s common expenses under the terms of the “indemnification” provision contained in the corporation’s declaration. The Court said that this did not require a Court application under Section 134 of the Condominium Act.
The Court also said that the corporation’s lien was registered in time, because it was registered within three months following the owner’s “default”, which occurred only when the owner failed to pay by a deadline (for payment) set out in the corporation’s demand for payment. The Court said:
The three-month period begins to run when the unit owner fails to pay the obligation relied upon to invoke the lien. Until the Corporation charged Mr. O’Regan for these remediation costs, he had no obligation to pay. Mr. O’Regan can only be said to be in default as of March 1, 2020, when the deadline to pay for the remediation costs expired.
Editorial Note: In my view, there was no need to consider the application of the indemnification provision (in the declaration) in this case. The deductible was properly added to the owner’s common expenses under Section 105 of the Condominium Act (and also under the terms of the corporation’s by-law dealing with responsibilities for a deductible loss under the corporation’s insurance policy).
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2021/2021onsc945/2021onsc945.pdf