What is a condominium?
What is the role of the Board?
What is the role of Condominium First?
What are the responsibilities of the owners?

What is a condominium?
A condominium is a type of real property ownership in which each owner owns the unit to which they hold title and jointly owns a portion of all the non-unit, or common property. The common property is maintained and operated by a Board of Directors who are elected by the owners.

Condominium Corporations are created when the Condominium Plan is registered at Land Titles. Registration creates a separate title for each unit. The owner's share in the common property, expressed in unit factors, is shown on each title.
There are several types of condominiums. They can be residential apartments, town houses, single family dwellings, or commercial spaces such as offices and retail operations to name a few.

What is the role of the Board?
The Board exercises all of the powers, and carries out all of the duties of the Corporation, subject to any restrictions imposed or directions given at a General Meeting. They are responsible for:

• administering the affairs of the Corporation.
• maintaining the common property
• making rules and regulations as required from time to time
• enforcing all requirements of the Corporation's bylaws and the Condominium Property Act
• setting the Corporation's budget and collecting the required amounts from the owners.

What is the role of Condominium First?
The Owners, through the Board of Directors, decide on the Corporation's policies, programs and budgets, but somebody has to make it all happen. That somebody is your professional condominium management team - Condominium First. As managers, we must turn the Board's policy and program decisions into reality.

Working closely with the Board, we organize and execute the tasks required for the successful operation of the condominium community. This includes all the details that are involved in order to provide landscaping, snow removal, common property repairs and maintenance. On the Corporation's behalf we collect the operating funds, invest the reserve fund contributions, pay the bills and ensure compliance with the bylaws and the Condominium Property Act. We prepare financial information, perform all administrative functions, place insurance and handle insurance claims, maintain the documents of the Corporation and are a contact point for the rest of the owners.

What are the responsibilities of the owners?
Know the rules - and play by them. The condominium lifestyle is a wonderful concept, but its success depends upon respect for the rights of others, acceptance of and adherence to the rules and a spirit of cooperation.

When you live in a condominium environment, the rules you must abide by are specified in the bylaws of the Corporation and in the policies that the Board sets. Every owner and tenant should have a copy of the bylaws and know what the Corporation is responsible for, what the Owner is responsible for and what each can and cannot do. For example, exterior alterations, or changes to the common property are generally not allowed without prior written approval from the Board. Some communities do not allow pets, or they limit the type and size of pet allowed. What are the rules for parking in visitor parking? Are Satellite dishes allowed?

To see the regulations that exist for your community, visit Order Documents Online. The bylaws and other documents are available for purchase. The Board policies are located in the Free Documents section.

In order to access Order Documents Online, you will need to know the Condominium Corporation number (CC#). How do you locate this number?