Requisitioned Meetings
Also see: Meetings; Meetings, Notice of; Meetings, Owners'
Short Answer
A meeting of the condominium corporation that is initiated by a formal, written request by a qualifying group of unit owners in accordance with the Condominium Act, 1998.
Definition
Pursuant to section 46 of the Condominium Act, 1998, (the “Act”), unit owners may requisition a meeting of owners by presenting a requisition in writing that is signed by the owners of at least 15% of the units. In order to qualify for such a requisition, those owners must also be listed in the record kept by the corporation in accordance with section 47(2) of the Act and must be entitled to vote (which involves being in that section 47(2) record for the requisite length of time and also not being 30 days or more in arrears of the payment of common expense contributions).
The requisition is to be in writing, signed by the said owners, and delivered to the president or secretary of the board either personally or by registered mail, or deposited at the address for service of the corporation. The requisition must state what business is to be discussed and/or voted on at the meeting. Although owners may requisition a meeting to discuss any issue, an effective vote likely cannot be required with respect to any matters that are within the sole discretion or authority of the board of directors. If the meeting is called for the purposes of removing a director of the corporation, the director must be named and the reasons for the director’s removal must be specified.
Provided that the requisition is complete and in proper form, the board is obliged to call and hold the meeting within 35 days of receiving the requisition. Alternatively, if the requisitioning owners ask or consent in writing, the board may add the requested business to the agenda of the corporation’s next annual general meeting. Where a board fails to comply with either of those requirements, the requisitioning owners are themselves entitled to call the meeting (which the corporation is then required to hold within 45 days of the time that it is called) and to require the corporation to cover their costs of so doing.
The requisition is to be in writing, signed by the said owners, and delivered to the president or secretary of the board either personally or by registered mail, or deposited at the address for service of the corporation. The requisition must state what business is to be discussed and/or voted on at the meeting. Although owners may requisition a meeting to discuss any issue, an effective vote likely cannot be required with respect to any matters that are within the sole discretion or authority of the board of directors. If the meeting is called for the purposes of removing a director of the corporation, the director must be named and the reasons for the director’s removal must be specified.
Provided that the requisition is complete and in proper form, the board is obliged to call and hold the meeting within 35 days of receiving the requisition. Alternatively, if the requisitioning owners ask or consent in writing, the board may add the requested business to the agenda of the corporation’s next annual general meeting. Where a board fails to comply with either of those requirements, the requisitioning owners are themselves entitled to call the meeting (which the corporation is then required to hold within 45 days of the time that it is called) and to require the corporation to cover their costs of so doing.
Under the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 (if and when it comes into force), the provisions in the Act relating to requisitioned meetings change in some significant and interesting ways. For a discussion of those changes and their consequences, see the two-part entry in the Bill 106 Blog, "Requisitioning meetings becomes more complex" here.
What you need to know…
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…as a Unit Owner
Requisitioning meetings should not be done carelessly. Owners considering requisitioning a meeting should carefully consider their causes and ensure it is worth the time, expense and inconvenience to their neighbours to attend in order to do whatever business it is that the requisitioned meeting is to be about. In order to ensure that you are always in a position to initiate or participate in a requisitioned meeting when wanted, owners should ensure they are current in regard to common expense payments and that they have provided their names and addresses for service to the condominium corporation to be retained in the record the corporation must keep in accordance with section 47(2) of the Act. If the board fails or refuses to call a validly requisitioned meeting, the owners may do so. In order to effectively call the meeting, owners will need to obtain the addresses for service of all of the owners from the corporation. This may be requested from the corporation pursuant to section 55 of the Act, but it might be unlikely that a board that refuses to call the meeting itself will cooperate. Other arrangements for properly serving the other owners with notice of the meeting will need to be made. For this reason, and also for the sake of ensuring the requisition is properly drafted, completed and served, owners seeking to requisition a meeting for any issue are advised to obtain legal counsel. |
…as a Board Member
Board members should carefully review requisitions for meetings to ensure they are correctly made, including that the owners signing the requistion represent the correct number of units and meet the other qualifications listed in the Act. However, in reviewing the requisition, board members should be generous in their attitude and not necessarily refuse to call and hold the requested meeting over a minor technicality. In fact, there is nothing which prevents a board from exercising its discretion to hold a meeting in accordance with a wholly invalid or flawed requisition, particularly if the board recognizes that the concerns raised in the requisitions are nevertheless genuine and worthy of consideration by the corporation as a whole. A good board of directors will be willing to hear and attempt to understand owners’ concerns, and to allow for constructive solutions to be reached through team work and collaborative effort. The board can decline calling the meeting if the board is certain that false statements and/or misleading information were provided to unit owners in order to induce them to sign the requisition. (See, Perper v. York Region Condominium Corp. No. 860, 2012 ONSC 3019 (CanLII).) |
…as a Declarant
A declarant is essentially in the same position as any other unit owner with respect to the possibility of requisitioning (in so far as it is a unit owner), or being requisitioned (in so far as turnover has not occurred and the declarant maintains control over the board of directors), to hold a meeting. |