Why Not to Buy or Rent a Condo in Toronto

By Shadow the Cat … 2012

Anyone who buys or rents a Toronto condo is making a big mistake. Citizens should oppose condo development altogether and support abolishing the Condo Act. I know from first hand experience.

These places come apart in 5 years then there is noise and leaks everywhere and though you pay fees you are charged for every little thing. As these buildings get older they'll be mostly rundown tenant housing. People will sell. But in current mode they are a way of making rentals unaffordable. For a condo unit that looks about the same as an apt you can pay from $500 to a thousand a month more. So renting one is not financially smart. In Ontario newer buildings aren't covered by rent control so you could face huge rent increases.

Condo management and boards usually only represent themselves and a small group of complainers. These whiners complain about every noise and about pets even in daytime hours. When the police inform them about city noise and pet bylaws and won't come they continue the harassment with security guards at the door and threatening letters. All boards move to provide more and more useless bylaws that no one obeys, yet if they target you it can cost thousands and eviction or forced sale. The boards and management use your own fees to get payoffs for hiring lawyer friends, contractors and security people.
You pay hefty fees for a management and security that is not used to protect or service you but to attack you. Condos need a strong tenants rights movement to counter property management companies and Boards that run them.

Camera surveillance is used illegally to spy directly on residents and as disciplinary tools to spy on guards, cleaners and workers. Because of their record of using cameras in violation of privacy laws, some buildings have as many as fifty cameras, to spy on workers and residents, the province should only allow cameras at the main entrances and pass provincial legislation specifically limiting management companies and security guard companies in the use of surveillance. As it is you have to sue under PIPEDA and can win sums of money but it takes lawyers and a long time. Cameras are only supposed to be used for your protection; spying on workers and residents is against privacy laws.

Gating: If a poor person wanders nearby a guard is sent out right away but not for anyone well to do. Many have rules so strict no one can get in; if you lock yourself out you have to call a lock smith, they won't let you in to your own unit outside of office hours. Often condo boards are stacked with fatheads who think they’re celebrities or something. Locking mostly friends of residents out of places where they are the only ones visiting. There is a lack of Canadian values as well as often board members and presidents aren’t even Canadians but from countries that are more or less police states.

You simply can't have a party because the complainers send guards to your door and call the police and send threatening letters. After one party and the resulting complaints most people give up. Indeed any noise often draws complaints and you end up a prisoner in solitary confinement in your own home.

They establish stiff parking rules and rigorous ticketing so you get ticketed and towed at your own home. They often set their own parking rules, put up illegal fire route signs and so on and ticket and harass.

Security guards can tell you - they are an enforcement arm of the property manager and a few board members with special privileges they allow themselves. Guards are not there for you and are immediately terminated if they don't enforce crazy rules or attempt to aid residents. There is actually less security in condo complexes. Many people think they’re so safe they leave doors unlocked. Fact is you have to insure everything and if there is a theft it will likely never be solved as condo theft is mostly inside jobs by workers, management and security. Think about it, a security guard making close to minimum wage has access to everything, he knows when you’re in or out as does management and other staff. The guard can’t afford to buy things like laptops but he can take yours, assured that the case will be another marked unsolved and sent to the insurance company. And condo boards and management promote this as they pay managers good wages and benefits yet hire cleaners and guards at minimum wage with no benefits or job security.

The condo act exists as a way of gutting city bylaws and tenant rights and owners' rights and establishing a mini police state. Therefore it should be abolished. Though you pay fees you have to put down a check up to $500 to book the elevator or the party room or other amenities. Any wear or damage you pay for. Gyms often have so many rules you can't use them and camera surveillance is again used not to protect you but to get you for breaking rules. Again a violation of privacy laws as is using cameras as an employee disciplinary tool. Condo laws are a form of Sharia Law existing to ruin established human rights.

 
Sane ADVICE: Don't buy a condo. Don't rent one. Sell if you have one. Oppose their development in your neighbourhood.

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