14/10/2022 – Jurisdiction Ontario
Part 80 published on 01/12/2022
Condominium corporation had unreasonably charged owner for legal costs
Because of alleged incidents violating the corporation’s Rules respecting noise and nuisance, the condominium corporation arranged for a compliance letter to be sent to the owner from the corporation’s legal counsel. The condominium corporation then demanded that the owner pay the related legal costs ($1,449.23). The owner paid this amount to avoid registration of a lien, and then challenged the chargeback by way of application to the Tribunal.
The Tribunal held that the chargeback was unreasonable and ordered the condominium corporation to reimburse the owner.
The Tribunal said:
When incurring legal and compliance costs, condominium corporations must act reasonably and judiciously (see Metropolitan Toronto Condominium Corporation No. 818 v. Tahseen et al., 2022 ONCAT at paragraph 29). In the present circumstances, I find that MTCC 1321 has acted unreasonably in incurring legal costs by obtaining a compliance letter from legal counsel before either warning Mr. Schnitzler or investigating the allegations. MTCC 1321 did not identify the August 2021 incidents to Mr. Schnitzler in a timely way and it did not provide Mr. Schnitzler with an opportunity to participate in an investigation of his alleged conduct or otherwise respond to the allegations. I do not accept MTCC 1321’s argument that a warning letter would not have been effective at addressing the alleged conduct. MTCC 1321 escalated to a legal letter without attempting other interventions. Given that I have found that these costs were not reasonably incurred, I consider it fair in these circumstances that Mr. Schnitzler be reimbursed for this amount.