In Alberta, management of condos can be done in two ways: either they are professionally managed, or they are self-managed. Regardless of how a condominium is being managed, there must be board members and they must comply with the Condominium Property Act. This act reinforces day-to-day tasks that these board members will be doing.

On top of this, depending on which type of management you go with, you’ll be approaching these laws in a different way. By understanding the perks and drawbacks of each type, you can provide legal reasoning in determining how you should be managing your condos.

Self-Managing Condos

If you’re going the self-managed route, the condominium board has to cover and manage every aspect of the property. That means the board has to manage accounting, any repairs that need to be made, and any maintenance tasks around the property like removing snow and landscaping.

The appeal of going self-managed is that the owners don’t need to worry about paying for professional property managers. You can still contract out some tasks, but it’s not a requirement.

The drawback of this is that unless you have a dedicated condo board, all of this is going to be very time consuming and the property could suffer as a result. It can get so bad that it’ll affect the quality of life in a complex and could tank property values too.

Professionally Managed Condos

On the flip side, you’ve got condos that are managed professionally. This is where condo corporations hire a condo manager or a condo management company and they’ll look after the daily affairs of the condo corporation. This range of tasks is going to vary a lot and depends mostly on what the parties agree to do.

By going down this route, you want to exercise caution and review agreements with these individuals or other businesses and to do research into the company and people working in the building.

It’s not so different from when going through the process of buying a condo or living in it. You want to be sure you’re researching as much as you can and get an understanding of the person. Some key questions to be asking yourself are:

• What kind of tasks is a condo manager responsible to do?
• How long has this condo manager been working as a condo manager?
• Do condo board meeting minutes show any issues with the condo manager?

New Developments To Consider Before Buying

If you’re planning to get a new condominium, here are some things to be keeping in mind:

• If there are any management agreements in place, developers have to disclose that to potential buyers.
• You can hire a management company to look after the development as well until the condo board is made up of unit owners.
• Any management agreement that you enter can be ended by the condo corporation itself so long as one year has passed since the date of agreement and a 60-day notice is given to the management company.

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