( See Ontario's Condo Act 1998 Section 128, part 8 & Reg 49/01 - Forms formerly 13 &14).

With an owner short-vote of 74% ( see President's affidavit) a Barrie area self-described “timeshare condo”'s voters approved a judicial application to wind down their corporation created in 1980. President's court-filed affidavit describes alleged “solvency and healthy reserves” but allegedly in inexorable decline /loss of resale value.

The President's affiidavit cites Section 128 as authority in a shortfall of mere 74 % owner consenting votes which it describes as 'guidance'

After submissions, a simple ONSC Court Order Feb 15 2013 by Mr. Justice J.R. McCarthy orders and authorizes the sale of Simcoe CC #32 – as per Application - to purchasers Dehe Wang and Wanhua Li pursuant to Agrt P&S with BoD on behalf of the condo owners, net proceeds via specific authorized Trustee law firm to await further Order of the Court. Uncited is the Act's section 128 nor even reference to Ontario's condo law.

http://www.greatlaw.ca/SCC32PINS/ApprovedSaleOrderFeb15.pdf

OBA Ontario Bar assn is offering Sep 22/14 Seminar on this opportunity. See Sep 3 /14 blog by C Jaglowitz LLB at http://www.ontariocondolaw.com/


The Bar Association describes ( excerpted ) :

" The recent termination of Simcoe Condominium Corporation No. 32 is believed to be the first termination of an Ontario condominium corporation under court supervision and one of only a small handful of condo terminations in Ontario’s legal history.

Attend this program to hear directly from the lawyers who handled the termination of Simcoe CC 32 about the steps and procedures undertaken to terminate a condominium corporation. Through this, you will gain practical insight into a novel area of condominium law – one that may become increasingly pertinent to both real property and litigation lawyers as older condominium corporations begin to reach structural life expectancy"

Canadian Bar Assn : CBA : http://www.cbapd.org/details_en.aspx?id=ON_14RPR0922T

Pretty low key process even for Barrie. Will this be the template elsewhere ?

Is a 74 % short-vote in Act-compliance ?

Maybe, but there is minimal discussion of the 4 conjunctive judicial criteria required by the Act's stand-alone section 128 ( where there is neither an 80% owner vote nor an error/inconsistency to correct ) .

( Section 128 does an end-run around direct owner consent to terminate. Otherwise the Act's Part 8 expressly sets up a 'Termination with Consent'; it is triggered by an 80 % 'VOTE', does not necessarily involve substantial damage nor is it obviated by expropriation processes. OR to instead correct "an error or inconsistency", a mere Declaration AMENDMENT under the Act's section 109 is empowered by court order without an 80 % vote. The error or inconsistency would have to be addressed by the protocols therein. )

Feb 15/13 Barrie court order (not at canlii.org) doesn’t even cite the Condominium Act 1998.

COURT ORDER itself cites the President’s Affidavit & Counsel’s Application. President’s affidavit itself cites section 128 but specifies - now to be mere 'guidance' - a short-vote of 74 % of the eligible votes NOT 80 % . Para 9 “The board did not want to make such a substantial decision without consulting with the owners”).

At least the Board thought it would be helpful to listen voluntarily to get some "gut feeling" about what most owners thought even if believing not at all legally bound by any strict legislated numeric milestone. What sort of legal advice could they have had about the "mere guidance" ( ? ! ) general owners' input ?

Wisdom from the Barrie President's affidavit :

“9 “The board did not want to make such a substantial decision without consulting with the owners” . . . ."

A Vancouver Sun series - picked up by the anonymous folks at CondoMadness (news Feb 16/16 http://condomadness.info/news.html ) - is also renewed by debate at Ontario's Condo-ology site.

Vancouver SUN editorial "... a conspiracy of silence. ..."

For Ontario condos isn't this also a big elephant in the room ? Rising property values & reserve under-funding are not unique to BC. Will more terminations be far behind ?

Will Ontario judges merrily allow it with less than 80 % consents as above ?

And like the departed McGuinty's extension for full adequacy, B.C. acted to reduce pressure on the underfunded strata corporations . . .

Vancouver SUN editorial Feb 11/16 : “Strata councils keeping woefully inadequate records, contingency funds” http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/editorials/ editorial+strata+councils+keeping+woefully+inadequate/11714132/story.html

Jan 20/16 Vancouver SUN “B.C. strata councils in ‘critical’ funding state” http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/barbara+yaffe+strata+councils+critical+funding+state/ 11663067/story.html

at Tom LePage's Ontario Condo-ology https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4660329/4660329-6103571276180250626

( update March 25 2017 : March 23/17 CONDOBUSINESS “ Unit owners sell boutique buildings to developer. Transaction marks first condo corporation in Ontario to terminate by vote” ( This contrasts to short-vote judicially approved sale with 74 % support under s 128”Termination by Court”( alone ) by Michelle Ervin

http://ontario.cafcor.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=46&func=view&catid=9&id=18699#18699 )

Soaring values . . . neglected maintenance . . . underfunded reserves . . . developers labelled hungry sharks . . .

but wait : It's NOT the GTA nor inner city Ottawa. It's Vancouver's anecdotal reports of block-busting & REAL hardball

Ontario's condo law already allowed a purely judicial termination WITHOUT an owner consent vote at all. B.C. is described to expect ? hope for ? a judicial safeguard ? Will it help Vancouver owners who don't want to sell ?

Maybe not : Section 128 was applied in Feb 2015 after a short vote produced only 74 % owner consents in Barrie.

Sep 16/16 G&M “West End Vancouver condo owners say they’ve been harassed to sell “ by Kerry Gold http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/west-end-vancouver-condo-owners-say-theyve- been-harassed-to-sell/article31933562/

Aug 12/16 G&M “B.C.’s new strata laws mean some owners may be forced to sell” by Kerry Gold http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/bcs-new-strata-laws-mean-some-owners-may-be- forced-to-sell/article31387492/

Vancouver battles picked up south of the border :
Deborah Goonan's https://independentamericancommunities.com/2016/09/21/vancouver-investors-mimic-u-s-condo-takeover- schemes/