Part 53 published on 01/02/16
Court limits costs payable to condominium corporation
The owner had initially failed to bring his fireplace into compliance with fire regulations. As a result, the condominium corporation was forced to bring this Court application, for a compliance order. The owner then brought the fireplace into compliance. The only remaining question for the Court was the corporation’s entitlement to costs.
The Court said that “Mr. Adamo has only himself to blame for the fact that the applicant incurred costs to bring this matter to Court. The applicant took all reasonable steps and showed real patience with Mr. Adamo prior to commencing this litigation.”
However, although the condominium corporation’s actual costs were in excess of $30,000, the Court ordered the owner to pay only $9,000 “as a reasonable award of partial indemnity costs”. The Court explained the reduction as follows: The Court said that the costs “must be proportional and consistent with Mr. Adamo’s reasonable expectations of the costs he might be called upon to pay”.
[Editorial Note: There appears to be one important unanswered question in the decision: Would section 134(5) of Ontario’s Condominium Act still give the condominium corporation the right to seek collection of its actual additional costs incurred in obtaining the order?]