'There's a lot of fear.' Ontario condo leaders call for safety changes to protect board members
Rising interest rates and higher construction costs are leading to confrontations between condo owners and boards, they say.
Thestar.com
Dec. 20, 2023
May Warren
Ontario's three main condo associations are raising concerns about the safety of condo board members and managers, who are under increasing pressure from financially stressed residents.
In an open letter to Premier Doug Ford, the attorney general and the minister of Public and Business Service Delivery, the group is calling for changes at provincial level including, as a first step, shielding the home addresses of condo owners.
"It's not good out there and it's getting worse," said Sally Thompson, the vice-president of the Community Associations Institute's Canadian chapter, which released the letter along with the Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario, and the Toronto and area chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute.
With rising interest rates, and higher construction costs that translate into more condo fees, many owners are on edge about finances.
It's not uncommon to see people "yelling hysterically" at condo board meetings, "because they can't afford their own unit anymore," she said.
Volunteer condo board members are the ones who have to deal with the brunt of these issues from their own neighbours, who have multiple ways of figuring out exactly where they live.
"There's a lot of fear," Thompson said, adding she hopes the province can "make it a little bit harder to find them."
The letter comes near the one year anniversary of the deadly shooting at Vaughan’s Bellaria Residences that left five people dead, include three current and past condo board members.
After the tragedy, the three condo associations did a deep-dive into the safety of condominium board directors, managers and owners, said Lyndsey McNally, president of the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute.
Under the Condominium Act, owners have the right to lists of all registered owners, which include unit numbers, she added. This is an important part of the democratic process, "but the problem is some of that right takes away privacy."
Public safety is a priority for the government, said Doug Allingham, with the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, in an email.
"As we look ahead to any policy changes related to the Condo Act and other relevant legislation, we’ll always consider the valued feedback from our stakeholders," he said.
A week before Christmas last year, 73-year-old Francesco Villi, who had a long history of legal fights with the condo board of Bellaria Residences where he lived, shot and killed current board members Naveed Dada, 59, and Rita Camilleri, 57; Camilleri’s partner, Vittorio Panza, 79; past condo board member Russell Manock, 75, and his wife, Helen (known as Lorraine), 71.
He also wounded board member John Di Nino's wife, Doreen Di Nino, showing up at their door and shooting her in the face, before being killed by police in a hallway of the luxury tower that night.
Overseas, three people died in Rome that same month in 2022, after a man opened fire at a condo board meeting.
Villi's behaviour before the shooting included aggressively complaining about noise and vibrations. It's "not uncommon" for board members to have to deal with difficult residents like this, Thompson said adding that "almost every manager" has a story of someone who "really just has difficulty controlling themselves in a communal environment."
Condos, she said, are the only place where the enforcers of the rules live alongside the people who are impacted by them.
"It's kind of a naturally dangerous environment."
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