The act provides the Civil Resolution Tribunal authority to handle:
•small claims disputes where the parties decide to take the matter to the tribunal instead of the court, up to a maximum value of $25,000 for: •debt or damages;
•recovery of personal property;
•specific performance of an agreement relating to personal property or services; or
•relief from opposing claims to personal property.

•strata disputes between owners of strata properties and strata corporations for a wide variety of matters such as: •non-payment of monthly strata fees or fines;
•unfair actions by the strata corporation or by people owning more than half of the strata lots in a complex;
•uneven, arbitrary or non-enforcement of strata bylaws (such as noise, pets, parking, rentals);
•issues of financial responsibility for repairs and the choice of bids for services;
•irregularities in the conduct of meetings, voting, minutes or other matters;
•interpretation of the legislation, regulations or bylaws; and
•issues regarding the common property.


The tribunal will not decide tribunal matters that affect land, such as:
•ordering the sale of a strata lot;
•court orders respecting rebuilding damaged real property;
•dealing with developers and phased strata plans;
•determining each owners’ per cent share in the strata complex (the “Schedule of Unit Entitlement”).

Such matters will continue to be heard in the Supreme Court, as will the following matters relating to significant matters in a strata complex:
•appointment of an administrator to run the strata corporation;
•orders vesting authority in a liquidator;
•applications to wind up a strata corporation;
•allegations of conflicts of interest by council members; or
•appointment of voters when there is no person to vote in respect of a strata lot.

How the Civil Resolution Tribunal Will Work

The Civil Resolution Tribunal will offer services designed to encourage early resolution of disputes, using the minimum level of tribunal resources necessary to do so. Where formal adjudication of a dispute is required, the tribunal will actively case manage the dispute so that the adjudication is conducted quickly and efficiently. In all cases, the level of resources applied to a dispute will be proportionate to the nature of the dispute and the issues involved.

Shouldn't this be in the "Out of Province" forum?

If Ontarians want a working model for problem resolution in condoland, then seeing at least one working model, might be worth a discussion, but...

Just in case somebody does show up at the condo hearings, there is at least one workable concept available, and would comply with Canadian law.

Bizarrely STILL NOT FUNCTIONAL 4 years after the 2013-14 Press Released target (quoted below), B.C.'s CRT ("Civil Resolution Tribunal") at least has a "work in progress" website.

4 years later WHAT - if at all ? - should Ontario disputants conclude about the B.C. implementation ?

Would it avoid bizarities like a part-time Ottawa Small Claims Court judge not only rejecting an owner's claim but counter-awarding $ 20 K in costs far outside the 15 % 'guideline' in legislation ? That self-represented owner has now been able to pry a right to appeal to Divisional Court ( ? $5 K to $80 K ? ). SEE 2016 Wexler v Carleton C.C. #98 http://ontario.cafcor.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=46&func=view&id=18447&catid=2

At least there are 18 B.C. lawyers identified as the future Tribunal members & 4 permanent staff.

The BC government in May 2016 closed recruiting for '“Resolution Support Clerks”.

Some wider timelines :

1 - 1977-79 ONTARIO itself enacts a platform for a condo "Bureau" but never implements it. Such disappears in 1998. But some version re-emerges in Bill 106

2 - here in May 2012 Richard Forster raises the B.C. reform which BC Press release said was hoped / planned in place 2013-14

3 - Today the BC Tribunal is still a "work in progress" but at least it has hired big shots.

4 - It has a pleasant looking website http://www.civilresolutionbc.ca/what-is-the-crt/how-will-the-crt-work/

5 - At July 9 2016 Input is still being invited about the proposed “Rules” https://www.civilresolutionbc.ca/what-do-you-think-about-the-draft-crt-rules/

Ignoring a BC Tribunal process ? risks contempt of conventional court after a decision is merely filed judicially.

The backstory :

May 7/12 BC Ministry of Justice Press Release ( its URL now wisely disabled by BC govt but I have the text ) "Online civil dispute tools to save time, money" :
" VICTORIA – B.C. plans to create the first-ever tribunal in Canada that offers a full array of online tools to allow British Columbians to solve common strata and small civil claims outside of courts, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Shirley Bond announced today. . . .

The February 2012 Green Paper, Modernizing British Columbia’s Justice System, identified tribunals as a simple and less expensive solution to easing delays in the court system.

. . . • The new service is the first of its kind in Canada and is expected to be in place by 2013-14. It will use mainly online web technologies, with some assistance by phone or mail. "

* * *

The Act itself is ( B.C.'s) Civil Resolution Tribunal Act that received 3rd reading May 30 2012
https://www.leg.bc.ca/pages/bclass-legacy.aspx#%2Fcontent%2Flegacy%2Fweb%2F39th4th%2F3rd_read% 2Fgov44-3.htm

*** Postscript : Help ? from any government ?

Floridans hoping state government would help enforce the MRTA marketable record title expiry provisions to escape from expired HOAs' tentacles, are finding that government may NOT be any help even with what appears to be flat-out lawbreaking.

Finding it frustrating to get intervention to halt the most bizarre 'street level' violations of property & civil rights by what in some cases are voodoo expired HOAs attempting resurrections . . http://www.hoatalk.com/HOADiscussionForum/tabid/55/view/topics/forumid/1/Default.aspx

I am sure the legislators are numb after hearing what homeowners will do to their real estates financial futures to save a buck, or avoid a decision.

Turning over their rights and powers to someone knocking at the door with a proxy form and promises to fix everything, was not how anyone planned their real estate to work.

People can run their condo like their home, and that has to end.

Condo HOA governance may be one of the worst or most challenging targets for online ADR. The Gods will hopefully help B.C

1- Some say online ADR fits its niche especially widely dispersed communities with scarce professionalism nor strata skillsets. Owners with few bucks to hire professionals. Huge imbalances of power. Defiant violators. Courts congested.

But I have real doubts that it can do much other than disseminating strata info, raising strata knowledge levels, encouraging good faith etc . . . Those are not bad ideas of course . .

2 - STILL not functional in B.C. FOUR YEARS after formal enactment of the legislative platform

But knee deep in big shots ! The website also shows that the Tribunal's chief has widely travelled to tell others about the B.C. project. Lots of good travel status & career self-marketing ?

3 This BC project may show one reason why Ontario never implemented the Bureau platformed in late 1970s Condo Act changes.

Or that the potential Bureau merely may have been merely a Big Stick threat . . . Speculation has included professionals & jurists fearing their turf invaded. But also civil liberties issues . .

Does another couple of layers of civil servants make things easier when strata warfare may be about . . . sociopathic incorrigibility . . . the Big Cheap . . etc ?

In Ontario how expensive & how well & how long for the planned new Authority's ADR part of it ( or the rest for that matter ) ? Legislative committee seems to have ignored some major smart advice about the Act changes eg insurance deductible issues. And still no prescribed Regs either . . .

The homeowner that files a complaint because the reserve fund is lacking or has been misused will become a target, when owners have to pay up for the deferred and manipulated budgets, that have keep the boards in place.

Why think when you can sign a proxy?

Right on the button. One hopes Ontario's Authority will lessen this for some disputes. IF it ever arrives & HOWsoever the workings.

How too easy it is in the condo/HOA universe to toxically reject legitimate concerns where a dissenter faces a wagon-circling defence without lots of active support by others who step forward.

And afterwards what may still happen to an individual dissenter whose beef is upheld during Condo Authority process but which generates costs at the future Authority or in court ?

No wonder many dissenters sell out asap. No wonder warnings are heard about daring to rock the boat without lots of other owners' support. Very easy to get labelled a troublemaker, even a vexatious litigant.

Police usually oblivious. Press has at best a short attention span.

CAUGHT ON TAPES :

Arizona owner at U.S. condo general meeting is video'd being shouted down - even assaulted - after asking ignored questions about highly suspicious payments to President. Such suspicious included diapers & even building supply invoices on the opposite side of the continent where President owns another condo. Postscript however is that the owner would eventually have to move out of the toxicity.

But NOT before she was able to get the Arizona media to intervene 60 Minutes style.

Superstition Lake Condo Owners meeting assaults ( and crony verbal abuse ) are recorded on cellphone camera against accuser of financial improprieties armed with credible financial evidence. "You're trying to destroy the community !" "GET OUT !"

Retaliation by cronies – even physical at wild Meeting – next triggers televised 60 Minute style press ambush against interview-refusing President suggesting why onsite accusers may be at toxic - even physical - risk.

Before meeting the attacked dissenter / critic had been denied protective presence of husband at Owners meeting. She says : “It’s a rogue Board and they’re dangerous . . . ”

June 2013 “Mesa HOA out of control? Homeowners accuse board of misspending funds” http://www.abc15.com/news/let-joe-know/mesa-hoa-out-of-control-homeowners-accuse-board-of- misspending-funds

This Condo Authority will never work, EVER! Look who created it! Should I say more? so the only solution is to sell and run away from this land as fast as possible.

Some veterans warn that buying into a condo/HOA community means full prior diligence is absolutely essential.

It would be nice if all goes well.

But if it doesn't , the choices repeatedly boil down to :

- persuade enough other owners to act jointly to change the Board

- fund & rely on whatever a jurisdiction allows externally as remedial ( ADR; the upcoming Authority; Human Rights Tribunals if applicable; litigation . . )

- suck up the abuse

OR

- sell and move out asap

Knowing what I know now: NEVER BUY A CONDO!!!

Unless you have tons of money on your hands, tons of time and are willing to spend it all fighting with the gangs. Don Quixote kinda thing but Don Quixote was kinda insane.

Changing the board just digs the hole deeper. Our merry band did that.

Those that have never read a declaration or the Act, make up their own rules and make promises to change the world. Total ignorance in condoland works well.

Not meeting the financial obligations and duties is not something resolved at ADR. Who would think that a board would have to appear before a judge to order balancing the books?

Sadly when owners have to open their chequebooks they look for someone to blame, instead of admitting they got caught.

Solving a problem and having it "your" way are not the same things. Boards do not want to solve problems, they want to be right, in their minds.

Don't adjust your sets. The B.C Civil Resolution Tribunal has announced Doors Now Open for strata claims ! "It may take several months for your strata dispute to be resolved"

Its Solution Explorer pathway ( seems to be accessible only from inside the site at "How CRT Works" then chose "CRT Overview" URL at bottom )
https://www.civilresolutionbc.ca/self-help/

( The demo drive : A bit of online exploring gives the feel of the general information pages at Ontario's LTB Landlord & Tenant Board or Ontario's Human rights Tribunal. Ontario's Condo Authority folks may be watching . . . )

July 13/16 “The CRT is Accepting Strata Claims for Early Intake”
http://www.civilresolutionbc.ca/the-crt-is-accepting-strata-claims-for-early-intake/

with link to its own selected ‘Rules feedback’ http://www.civilresolutionbc.ca/what-you-told-us-about-the-crt-rules/

July 15/16 Vancouver Sun “B.C. launches first-in-Canada online tribunal to resolve civil disputes”

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-launches-first-in-canada-online-tribunal-to-resolve- civil-disputes

Why should balancing the books be a dispute?

Why should not having a funded reserve plan require a Tribunal?

Owners decided to run their condos like their homes, instead of the business it is.

This is just like how Toronto has run it's city into the ground too. The councillors pick a number out of the air to adjust property taxes, then pretend to make the budget fit a percentage number everybody likes to hear, to stay elected.

Yes. Tribunals or not, in ONTARIO will advocacy & manager-licensing & platforming small stuff ADR - will those substantially change MANY decades of two way battles & abuse ?

Will they substantially restrain sociopathic irresponsible governance & toxic retaliation ?

A huge challenge. These battles in Ontario were underway for DECADES BEFORE condo law was even brought to Ontario. These were the battles in the HOA/POA communities linked by covenants running on title. eg Property & Civil rights abuses in 'White Gentiles Only' transfer prohibitions 1949-51.( Beach O'Pines; Noble/Wolf/ Alley etc ). Owners desperate to escape from mis-governance & whatever else eg Galbraith v Madawaska Club Ltd 1961.

Help from government ? Many American commenters have deplored what they see - correctly or not - as often mere window-dressing protections if & when states set up some sort of regulation &/or intervention.

How easy for condo/HOA stakeholders & government to fail to either recognize nor reward professionalism, honesty, whatever.

How tough for stakeholders & government to deter cronyism, incorrigible lawbreaking, nepotism, conflicts of interest, corruption hidden from view.

The Province for example says committed to reducing all sorts of MUNICIPAL abuses, but then it only has to look at itself in the mirror . .

COSTS

Effectively or not these Tribunals evolve, an additional issue is how much will it cost the general taxpayers ?

Will it be one more smoke screen to suck up bucks & time without much service to the strata/condo universe ?

BC proponents claim de-congestion of courts will occur. How would one credibly quantify such costs/decongestion claims because many small stuff strata disputes likely never reach court now ? How much of the real costs can ( or should be ) recovered from disputants ?

Anyway once such a B.C. Tribunal is up & running with salaried staff & big shots in place, it will be politically almost impossible to shut it down. Hope it at least helps resolve & deter.

Worth future review :

The Vancouver Sun article cites the BC government' set up & operating cost estimates. ( " . . . But that will change as the $10.8-million digital platform, with an annual operating budget of $4.9 million, becomes fully functional next spring.. . " ).

Anything has to be cheaper than owners still paying for the $90,000 in legal fees while the board tried to beat up and remove an owner. Not to mention what the owner paid out of his pocket defending the action.

Let's not talk about the effect of frivolous lawsuits showing up on the status certificate(S).

Should owners that don't want to pay for repairing that garage continue to be able to toss out board members that try to manage the real estate?

Will it be illegal to file false financial statements and records and fictional status reports?

Since Toronto and Mississauga can only build condos, something has to work.

The HOA groups are another nightmare. Even scary when owners thing they can act like one and pull the boards strings to play with the finances and hide the $$ truth.

If nothing else Ontario's Condo Bureau may have a ( ? mild ? ) deterrence effect lacked by the current Act's ignored Provincial Offences section 137 - now altered in Bill 106 ( Province of Ontario missing in action for decades ). Or did it have some deterrence effect ?

Yvon Piche even coaxed out of the Province the shocking admission that nothing had ever been prosecuted by 2009/10 under Section 137 !

Further, at least the so-called MINOR disputes may now be opened to a form of online or governmental ADR paid largely by taxpayers.

Leaving disputes /or abuses to languish unaddressed, may no longer be as easy or risk-free, at least for a while until the new Authority's results emerge. . . .

Can you imagine how many boards would have nobody serving if any one of the characters were heard about over the years here had to face time in jail?

Winning a financial judgement does not put cash in your pocket either.

When someone has to show up when a condo owner asks why can't you turn down the surround sound? What do you think the offender will say to a panel?

The managers will be paying for licensing and monitoring too, but to a higher standard, as the paid and regulated professional.

July 19/16 Victoria Times Colonist :

Hope is offered to a frustrated bare land strata owner by columnist Tony Gioventu (executive director of the Condominium Home Owners’ Association).

Opines that the C.R. Tribunal will be able to issue an order for a party to comply with the bylaws and to pay any of the fines or damages that may have been incurred. ( strata fines are legal in B.C.)

Further that there is no limit to the amount that may be claimed/Tribunaled if within its scope including disputes over who must suck up a $100,000 insurance deductible

"Day of reckoning due for obnoxious strata owner"
http://www.timescolonist.com/life/homes/day-of-reckoning-due-for-obnoxious-strata-owner-1.2305530

The reference is at CAFCOR's Out of Province Forum

http://ontario.cafcor.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=46&func=view&id=18642&catid=11