Condo owners in aging building face $14M in repairs. If they can't pay their part they risk losing their homes

The enormous beige and brown slab condominium building Wendy Thomas has called home in the northwest corner of Toronto for 42 years is crumbling. 

She sees the warning signs in the rivulets of water that streak the hallway walls, bubbling behind yellow paint and pooling on worn carpet. Exposed wires hang from broken light fixtures in dark stairwells and cracked lobby windows are held together with duct tape. 

In her own second-floor unit, a main pipe burst behind the shower nearly a year ago. The gushing water disintegrated sections of drywall and destroyed the parquet flooring throughout the unit.

The 72-year-old spent days mopping up water and months coping with mould and mice until she could afford basic repairs, although the holes in her bathroom wall remain.

"I'm scared, you know, because we don't know what the future holds," said Thomas. 

Her husband died in July, leaving her on a single fixed income. Then in September everything got worse, she said.

As much as $9 million of debt plus a rapidly deteriorating structure have caught up to York Condominium Corporation No. 82, which runs the 321-unit building in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. And last week, an Ontario Superior Court judge cited an engineering report that found repairs needed in the 10-storey building over the next year would cost more than $14 million.

Like all condominium corporations, this one is overseen by a small group of owners elected to a board of directors. They have the power under Ontario's Condominium Act to require all owners to pay for common expenses, no matter the price tag.

So that's what they did.

On Sept. 2, the corporation sent letters to all owners informing them they had 15 days to pay a special assessment ranging from $30,000 to $42,500 per unit depending on its size — on top of monthly maintenance fees of about $800. 

The total $11.2 million raised would be used to repay loans and chip away at a list of 70 repairs ranging from replacing plumbing to upgrading elevators to restoring the party room that's been shuttered for the past 15 years, the letter said. 

If residents weren't able to pay, a lien was slapped on their unit, which under Ontario's Condominiums Act allows the condo corporation to sell the unit to recover the amount owing. It also means those residents can't vote in future board elections.

"How could they do it? We're in the middle of a pandemic," Thomas said through tears. "For most people, this is their retirement home. They were looking for a peaceful time."

Residents have done what they can to help improve the building, paying bills sent to them by the corporation to cover plumbing costs and false fire alarms, on top of their monthly fees, Thomas said. Recently, they were each charged $60 for new keys when the lobby doors were replaced.