If you are buying a condominium in Ontario, your lawyer will order a status certificate for the unit. Most guides will tell you what is inside it. Far fewer tell you the part that actually protects you, so here it is first.
It binds the corporation
Section 76(6) of the Condominium Act, 1998 provides that the status certificate binds the corporation as against a purchaser or mortgagee of a unit who relies on it. If the certificate says the unit's common expenses are current and there is no special assessment coming, and that turns out to be wrong, the corporation is held to what it told you — not to the truth it omitted.
Section 76(4) closes the obvious gap: a certificate that leaves out material information it was required to contain is deemed to include a statement that there is no such information. Silence is not a loophole; silence is an answer the corporation is bound by.
That is why "we reviewed the status certificate" is not a box-tick. It is the point at which your risk changes hands, and it costs less than the home inspection you would not skip.
What it costs, and how long it takes
A condominium corporation may not charge more than $100 for a status certificate, inclusive of all applicable taxes. That ceiling is set by section 18(2) of Ontario Regulation 48/01. If you are quoted more for the certificate itself, the excess is somebody's service or rush fee — not the certificate.
Section 76(3) requires the corporation to deliver the certificate within 10 days after receiving the request and the fee. Those ten days are why a status-certificate condition in an offer is normally written with real time in it: the clock does not start until both the request and the payment land, and the corporation is entitled to all ten days.
What is actually in it
Section 76(1) requires the certificate to be in the prescribed form, to state the date it was made, and to contain a long list of specifics. These are the clauses that matter most when you are deciding whether to go ahead:
- Money owing on your unit. Clause 76(1)(a) requires a statement of the common expenses for the unit and any default in paying them. An arrears balance follows the unit, not the seller.
- Increases already declared. Clause 76(1)(b) requires any increase in the unit's common expenses declared since the current year's budget, and the reason for it.
- Special assessments. Clause 76(1)(c) requires any assessments levied against the unit since the budget to increase the reserve fund contribution, and the reason. This is the clause that tells you a major repair is already being paid for.
- The reserve fund. Clause 76(1)(m) requires a statement about the most recent reserve fund study, the fund balance measured no earlier than the end of a month within 90 days of the certificate's date, and any plans to increase the fund. A thin reserve on an older building is how a special assessment arrives later.
- Litigation. Clause 76(1)(h) requires all outstanding judgments against the corporation and the status of every legal action it is party to.
- The finances. Clause 76(1)(i) requires the current year's budget, the last annual audited financial statements and the auditor's report.
- The rules you will live under. Clause 76(1)(f) requires a copy of the current declaration, by-laws and rules — which is where you find out about pets, short-term rentals, balcony use, and whether your intended renovation is permitted at all.
- Changes to the building. Clause 76(1)(n) requires a statement of substantial additions, alterations or improvements to the common elements and substantial changes to the corporation's assets or services.
Section 76(7) goes further: on written request and reasonable notice, the corporation must let the person who requested the certificate examine the agreements it listed. If something in the package reads oddly, you are entitled to look at the underlying document.
A status certificate is not a Periodic Information Certificate
These get confused, and they are different documents with different jobs. A status certificate is issued on request, for one unit, to whoever asks and pays, and it binds the corporation to what it says. A Periodic Information Certificate is circulated by the corporation to all owners on its own schedule as a general update. If you are buying, the document your lawyer needs is the status certificate.
How to read one without being a lawyer
Your lawyer will review it properly. These are the four things worth forming your own view on before you waive a condition:
- Is the reserve fund credible for the building's age? Read 76(1)(m) against what you can see of the building.
- Has an assessment already been levied? 76(1)(c) is a statement of fact, not a forecast.
- Is the corporation in litigation? 76(1)(h) tells you, and the reason usually tells you more than the amount.
- Do the rules permit the life you are planning? 76(1)(f) is the one people skip and later regret.
Where it fits in the rest of your costs
The certificate is a small line in a much larger total. Ontario land transfer tax is charged on the value of the consideration when the transfer is registered, and for most purchases it dwarfs every other closing cost. We have set out the whole picture — what is fixed by statute and what you have to get quoted — in Ontario closing costs: what is fixed and what is quoted.
And if you are still choosing a building rather than reviewing one, start with the building itself: browse condo buildings across Ontario, look at a specific one such as 4010 Eglinton Avenue W, or see what is available in Toronto condos for sale and Mississauga listings. If you are selling a condo to buy another, your side of the arithmetic starts with what your home is worth.