Part 16 published on 01/11/06
If a condominium corporation has no standard unit description, none of the units contain any “improvements”
A leak in a hot water pipe caused damage to the owner’s hardwood flooring (which had been installed in place of the original carpeting).
The condominium corporation had not passed a “standard unit by-law”, in order to establish a standard unit description. As a result, the Court held that the hardwood flooring did not constitute an “improvement”. The Court therefore held that the condominium corporation was responsible to repair the hardwood flooring.
[Editorial Comment: This case was decided under section 89 of the Condominium Act 1998 (relating to uninsured damage). In my view, the case should perhaps have been decided under section 99 of the Act (relating to insured damage). However, the key feature of the decision, in any event, was that improvements do not exist unless the corporation has created standard unit descriptions.]