What is a special assessment and can I be hit with one?
A one-time charge levied on every owner when the reserve fund cannot cover necessary work. It is not optional, it is a lien on your unit if unpaid, and nothing in this app can size one for you: the amount depends on the work and on your unit's share of it, and the status certificate is where any figure for your building exists.
Corporations must fund major repairs from a reserve, informed by a periodic reserve fund study. When the reserve is short and a garage membrane, a roof, elevators or window walls need doing, the board levies the shortfall on owners in proportion to their unit share.
You cannot vote it away and you cannot decline it. Unpaid, it becomes a lien on the unit and the corporation can enforce it.
The warning signs are visible before you buy, in the status certificate: a reserve balance far below what the study projects as required, fees that have been held flat for years in a building with aging systems, and board minutes discussing major work.
A building with higher fees and a well-funded reserve is often cheaper to own than one with low fees and no savings. Low fees are not a feature if the money still has to be spent.
Next questions
What is a status certificate and what is in it?
The condo corporation's disclosure package about the unit and the corporation: fees, arrears, budget, reserve fund, insurance, litigation, rules and any planned special assessment. The corporation must produce it within ten days and the fee is capped by regulation.
Ontario
Why are condo fees so different between buildings?
Because of what they include and how well the reserve is funded. A fee covering heat, water and hydro is not comparable to one covering none, and a low fee in an aging building usually means a special assessment later.
Ontario