Condo inspections and the status certificate: what each one tells you

Condo buyers are routinely told the corporation takes care of everything and the status certificate tells you what you need to know. Both statements are half true, and the gap between them is where condo buyers get hurt.

Two documents, two completely different jobs

The status certificate is a financial and legal disclosure package. Your lawyer reviews it for the corporation's financial position, the reserve fund and the most recent reserve fund study, whether a special assessment is planned or has been discussed, the budget and any fee increases, the declaration, by-laws and rules, insurance, litigation, and whether the unit is in arrears. It tells you about the corporation.

A condo inspection is a physical assessment of the actual thing you are buying — the suite, its systems, and the accessible common elements. It tells you about the building.

A corporation can be financially healthy and still be sitting on a garage membrane at end of life. A suite can be in a well-run building and still have a previous owner's unpermitted bathroom renovation quietly wetting the ceiling below.

What is actually yours to repair

The boundary between unit and common element is defined by the declaration, and it is not where most buyers assume. Depending on the declaration, you may be responsible for in-suite plumbing beyond the shut-off, the HVAC unit serving your suite, all interior finishes, appliances, and in some cases windows, doors and balconies in whole or in part.

Read the declaration — or have your lawyer summarise the boundary specifically — and then have those components inspected, because that is where your money is exposed.

What we look at in the suite

• Moisture, with infrared. The single most common and most expensive in-suite defect. Around shower pans, behind tubs, at window walls, under kitchen sinks, at the base of exterior walls.
• Plumbing — supply and drainage, shut-off locations and operation, water heater or in-suite tank where present.
• Electrical — panel, GFCI protection, wiring modifications from renovations.
• HVAC — the in-suite unit, fan coil or heat pump, its age, condition and filter, and whether it heats and cools properly.
• Windows and doors — operation, seals, failed sealed units, and condensation patterns that indicate an envelope problem.
• Unpermitted alterations by previous owners, which become your liability and can put you in breach of the declaration.
• Appliances and their condition and age.

What we can see of the building

We review the accessible common elements: entry and corridors, the parking garage, mechanical rooms where the property manager grants access, roof where permitted, and the visible exterior envelope. What we are reading for is evidence that contradicts the paperwork.

• Parkade slab and membrane. Spalling concrete, exposed rebar, efflorescence and active leaking are the leading indicator of a very large future assessment in older Ottawa buildings.
• Envelope condition. Sealant failure, spalling masonry, and window-wall systems that are behaving badly in cold weather.
• Balconies and guardrails. Slab edge condition and guard attachment.
• Mechanical plant age where accessible — boilers, chillers, make-up air, and elevators.
• General maintenance standard. How a building's back-of-house looks tells you a great deal about how it is run.

For a full building assessment, the reserve fund study and any engineering reports are the right documents, and they come with the status certificate. What we add is whether the physical evidence agrees with them.

The two Ottawa condo markets

1970s and 80s concrete towers in Centretown, Hintonburg and along the transit corridors. Aging envelopes, parkade membranes reaching end of life, original mechanical plant, and often low fees that have not been rising fast enough. The fee is not a bargain if the reserve is underfunded.

Newer glass-and-steel builds downtown, in Little Italy and Westboro. Window-wall systems that perform very differently at −25 °C, in-suite fan coil units that are entirely the owner's problem, and sealant and cladding details whose long-term behaviour is still being established.

Different buildings, different questions, same principle: read the money and inspect the building.

Frequently asked