Common Element & Maintenance Disputes
Community Situation Repairs, Maintenance & Responsibility DisputesRepeated Winter Safety Complaints That Never Seemed to Reach the Board
A recurring snow-and-ice hazard went unaddressed for years despite repeated emails to the property manager, and the owner began to doubt the concerns were reaching the board at all.
An owner described a recurring winter safety hazard, snow and ice in shared areas of their complex, that had not been addressed despite repeated emails to the property manager and repeated discussion at annual general meetings over multiple years. Three emails on one occasion produced only a vague assurance and no visible action for more than two weeks.
The owner had also contacted their municipality directly, which said the property was private and outside its jurisdiction. Because every piece of correspondence passed through the property manager, the owner said they had no way to know whether the board itself was even seeing these concerns, or only ever seeing the property manager's own summary of them.
Documents an owner in this situation should gather
- Every email raising the hazard, with dates, so a pattern of delay is documented rather than described from memory
- Any AGM minutes where the issue was raised, and the response recorded
- Any written confirmation, or lack of one, that the board itself (not just the property manager) was made aware
Questions to ask management or the board
- 1Does correspondence sent to the property manager actually reach the board, and is there a way to confirm that in writing?
- 2What is the board's own timeline expectation for addressing a recurring safety hazard once raised?
- 3If the municipality has no jurisdiction over the property, who does an owner escalate to next?
Facing something like this?
Read the plain-language guidance for this exact situation, or run your own documents through the Free Notice Decoder.
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Curated and maintained by Alexander Baraz, Condo Owner Advocate.
This is a Community Situation: a real situation shared publicly by a condo owner, most often in an Ontario Facebook community group. It is included for educational purposes only. It is not a Condo Owner Advocate client, not COA casework, not a testimonial, and not legal advice.