Injury Law Group Blog

Are You Up to Date? Electronic Serving for Condo Notices

Condominium and Housing Law

Are you up to date?  Using electronic service of notices can help condos manage costs and promote green initiatives. 

As of November 1, 2017, the Condominium Act introduced new responsibilities for communication, such as sending two information certificates each year to all owners (unless 80% of owners consent in any given year to not receive these) as well as preliminary notices of meetings, in addition to the Annual General Meeting Package. 

Sending out paper copies of these communications can come at a hefty cost when you factor in the cost of labour, printing, ink, and postage. 

Encouraging owners to use electronic communication is something that can have a positive impact on condo budgets as well as the environment.

However, before condos begin using electronic communications, the following steps, required by the Condominium Act, must be completed:

• Notice must be in writing;
• Notice must be in the mandatory form provided by the Ministry, if applicable;
• Notice must be served in one of the following ways: by personal delivery to the owner; by mail to the owner’s address for service; by delivery to the owner’s unit or mailbox (unless the owner has indicated not to deliver this way or their address for service is not their unit); via fax or electronic mail or another form of electronic communication if the board has passed a resolution confirming the method of electronic communication that will be used, and the owner agrees in writing to receive service by this method. 

There is an Agreement to Receive Notices Electronically that the Ministry has prepared, which can be signed by owners and maintained by the condo for their records.  Although this form is not mandatory, it can be helpful in obtaining owner agreements for electronic communication. 

Another option for paperless serving is by posting the information certificate on a website and providing owners with a Notice of Online Posting of Information Certificate (using the Ministry’s standard form), and letting owners know how they can access the information.  If posted on a website, owners will need to be able to view, store, retrieve, and print the information and may also request a hard copy by making a records request.

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