Edward Brain's Blog

QUESTION:  Our board posts minutes of directors meetings on a publicly viewed bulletin board. At a recent meeting, the board discussed our garage roof that is leaking on top of parked cars. The posted minutes included my name and stated that I was the main complainant. Should not a complainant’s names be confidential?

ANSWER:  The Condominium Act specifies that an owner is entitled to examine the corporation’s records, except for certain records including those relating to specific unit owners. Your complaint is a record of the condominium.

If the condominium cannot allow a requesting owner to examine a record relating to a particular owner, it is obvious that the corporation has no right to make available on a publicly viewed bulletin board information in regard to an owner forming part of a record.

What the Board should be doing at their meetings is to approve two sets of the Minutes of their meetings.  One set is the official record of the meeting, which must be retained for legal purposes.  The second set should be an identical copy, but with specific information blacked out for privacy reasons such as the names of owners who wrote into the Board.  Although, from the sounds of what the questioner stated it sounds like the Board may unintentionally made the error and the owner should simply request that the posted Minutes be corrected to black out his/her name.  Failing that, the owners should speak with a lawyer or the Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO).

The other question I wish to discuss is the following:

Come on Ontario, let’s bring some real accountability to condominiums and put the owners in charge of their home.