The condo looks great. The status certificate decides whether the building is.

Yes. In Ontario, only a lawyer licensed by the Law Society of Ontario can register a transfer of land and a mortgage on title. A condo purchase has all the legal work of a freehold purchase plus a full status certificate review. Your lawyer reviews the agreement, reads the status certificate cover to cover, searches title, coordinates with your lender, calculates Land Transfer Tax, deals with the property manager on the unit transfer, and registers your name on title.

A status certificate (Form 13 under the Condominium Act, 1998) is the document the condominium corporation issues to a prospective buyer. It includes the unit's common element fee status, the corporation's most recent operating budget, the most recent reserve fund study, the corporation's financial statements, the declaration, by-laws, rules, the certificate of insurance, and any notices of pending special assessments, lawsuits, or chargebacks against the unit. Most agreements give the buyer 10 calendar days to review it after delivery. Our review takes less than that, but the timeline is set by what the agreement requires.

Common elements are shared parts of the condo property owned by all unit owners collectively (lobbies, hallways, elevators, the gym, the parking garage). Exclusive-use common elements are common element areas that only one unit has the right to use, such as a balcony, a parking spot, or a storage locker assigned to that unit. The condominium corporation owns these areas, but only the assigned unit can use them. Some condo declarations also create limited common elements, which are common areas a defined group of units share, such as a hallway shared by units on a single floor. The status certificate and declaration confirm what is included with the unit you are buying.

A reserve fund is the corporation's savings account for major repair and replacement of common elements like the roof, elevators, plumbing risers, and parking garage. Ontario's Condominium Act requires every condominium corporation to commission a reserve fund study every three years and to fund the reserve at a level the study supports. An underfunded reserve is the leading cause of unexpected special assessments, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars per unit. Our review compares what the reserve fund study says is required to what the budget actually contributes, and flags the gap.

Yes. A special assessment is a one-time charge levied by the corporation against unit owners to cover an expense the reserve fund cannot. They are typically triggered by major unexpected repairs or by a reserve fund that turned out to be underfunded for a planned project. Once you close on the unit, you are responsible for any special assessment levied after closing, regardless of when the underlying problem started. The status certificate is supposed to disclose any special assessment that has been formally proposed, but it does not predict future assessments. We read the reserve fund study and the recent corporation minutes (where included) to flag the warning signs.

You have options before conditions come off and fewer options after. If your offer is conditional on a satisfactory status certificate review (it should be), the condition lets you walk away from the purchase, renegotiate the price, or require something specific from the seller before waiving. We send our review in writing with the issues identified and the consequences explained, so you can make the decision with your real estate agent inside the conditional period. If the condition has already been waived, the options narrow significantly, which is why the timing of the status certificate review matters.

Yes. The biggest one is the reserve fund working capital contribution, which most declarations require new owners to pay on closing. It is typically equal to two months of common element fees and goes directly to the corporation's reserve fund. Some buildings also charge an estoppel certificate fee, a key fob deposit, an elevator booking deposit for moving day, or a unit transfer fee paid to the property manager. We calculate every condo-specific cost on your statement of adjustments before closing so there are no surprises on closing day.