Buying a condo in Montréal: what to read before you sign

A condo (a divided co-ownership) is three things at once: a private portion, a share of the common portions and a place in the syndicate of co-owners. The first two are on the plan; the third is not.

And the third is where the surprises are. When you buy, you inherit the syndicate’s financial health, its past decisions and the work it has postponed. A spotless condo in a badly run building is still a condo in a badly run building.

Title and registry checks are the notary’s work and are done for any property: they are described on the real estate law page. This article is about the other half, the one that depends on what the syndicate hands over.

They come from the syndicate or the manager, and the seller can request them. None of them takes long to read; the dullest are the most useful.

The contingency fund pays for major repairs and the replacement of common portions: roof, elevator, windows, brickwork. It is built up out of a share of the monthly fees.

An underfunded fund is invisible at a viewing and does not make the fees higher: quite the opposite, it makes them lower, which looks like a bargain. The bill arrives later, as a special assessment, and it arrives to whoever owns the unit that day.

In recent years the law has tightened what syndicates must do about maintenance logbooks and contingency fund studies, precisely because underfunding was the norm. Ask whether the study has been done and what it concludes.

A special assessment is an amount voted by the general meeting for work the fund does not cover. It can run to several thousand dollars per unit.

What matters to a buyer is the DATE: an assessment voted before the sale and one voted after are not settled the same way, and an assessment merely discussed at a meeting has not been voted at all. The minutes say where the matter stands; the promise to purchase can provide for who bears the cost.

That is a clause to have drafted before signing the promise, not after.

Before signing, the notary asks the syndicate for a statement of the seller’s common expenses and for information on proceedings and work under way. That is what allows the accounts between seller and buyer to be adjusted, and what tells you what is coming.

The notary also checks that the declaration of co-ownership is properly published, that the cadastral designation of your private portion matches what you think you are buying (including the parking space and the storage locker, which are sometimes common portions for restricted use rather than your property) and that nothing registered encumbers the unit.

The rest, how the building is run and what it is like to live in, is not in any register. It is in the minutes.

Three questions rule out most of the bad surprises, and all three are asked before you commit.