Special Assessments & Reserve Funds
Community Situation Special Assessment DisputeA $28,000 Special Assessment for Porch Repairs
A large per-unit special assessment, tied to years of deferred maintenance, raised the question of what owners can actually check before accepting the bill.
- Assessment
- Over $28,000 per unit
- Purpose
- Porch repairs after years of deferred maintenance
- History
- Earlier repair attempts did not fully resolve the problem
- Owner concern
- Amount felt disproportionate to home values
Owners in an Ontario condo corporation were told they owed more than $28,000 each for porch repairs. The damage had built up over years. Earlier repair attempts did not fully fix the problem, and owner concerns went unaddressed in the meantime.
Many owners opposed the size of the bill. They said it was out of proportion to the value of their homes, and asked what options they had to challenge or reduce it. This pattern is common: owners face a large, sudden cost without seeing the paper trail behind it. Reserve fund projections, prior repair records, and the engineering basis for the number are what let owners judge whether the amount is reasonable.
Documents an owner in this situation should gather
- The special assessment notice itself, including the total amount and payment deadline
- The corporation's current and prior reserve fund studies
- Board or AGM minutes referencing earlier porch repair attempts or complaints
- Any engineering or contractor report the assessment amount is based on
- The declaration, to confirm each unit's proportionate share of the expense
Questions to ask management or the board
- 1Was this repair identified in the reserve fund study, and if so, when, and at what estimated cost?
- 2What happened during the earlier repair attempt, and why didn't it resolve the issue?
- 3Is a payment plan or installment option available for owners who can't pay the full amount at once?
- 4Can the engineering or contractor report behind this number be shared in full?
Facing something like this?
Read the plain-language guidance for this exact situation, or run your own documents through the Free Notice Decoder.
Read the full guides
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 an illustrative community case. It is not a Condo Owner Advocate client, not COA casework, not a testimonial, and not legal advice.