Condominiums are complex entities to manage and yet are governed by elected directors who are not required to have any relevant expertise. Most new directors have no prior experience about being on a condo board. It is the luck of the draw if a director has expertise pertinent to the condominium.

Condo directors shoulder heavy responsibilities and make decisions with significant financial implications. The consequences of poor decisions can be profound, even if the decision was welcomed in the short term. Keeping condo fees low makes owners happy until years later when an inadequate reserve fund must be topped up with a large special assessment to fund a major repair and replacement project.

Condominiums across Ontario and in many other localities face the challenge of aging infrastructure and new pressures to implement climate-friendly and energy-efficient solutions that require cutting-edge technologies that have not yet been widely implemented. It takes extraordinary effort and knowledge to navigate in this area.

What happens when directors make the wrong decisions? Mostly nothing. The courts have been reluctant to charge directors for bad decisions. Did they commit fraud or negligence, or was it just an honest mistake?

There are no condo police. No one reviews a board’s decisions. No penalties get assessed when the boards screw up. It doesn’t matter if it was an honest mistake; honest mistakes can have painful consequences. Appointed administrators step in to rescue the worst condo boards, but this is done as a last resort and should never be implemented unless absolutely necessary. Bringing cases of fraud or negligence to trial is costly and time-consuming.

Continuing education is hailed as a means for directors to develop the necessary skills and expertise. Even though the Condominium Authority of Ontario’s online mandatory training program provides a solid foundation, directors can never stop learning and continue to gain experience over their terms.

Directors are expected to seek appropriate expertise when needed. Depending on the specific situation, they will consult with their legal counsel, engineer, accountant or other expert or even a combination of several experts. These experts provide sound advice, but the board must make and understand their decisions. Condo managers are critical to any discussion, but making the final decision is the board’s responsibility.

Making decisions in the best interest of the condominium requires directors to be as well-informed as possible about their condo and knowledgeable about condominiums in general. Condos need expert directors, but volunteer directors don’t become experts overnight.

Can continuing education be more effective? Here are eight ideas to consider.

1. Handover Meetings: Encourage boards to hold handover meetings and invite retiring current directors to provide updates on ongoing activities. While the meeting is most relevant to new directors, take advantage of the opportunity to discuss ongoing issues more broadly and discuss the future of the condo as a group. It is also an opportunity to discuss board policies, conflicts of interest, and any other issues that could benefit from current and retiring directors being together. Be sure to ask if a retiring director could be consulted.

2. Legacy Documentation: Ensure retiring directors leave behind detailed records, including:

• Document decisions, highlighting the reasoning behind them,
• Lessons learned to guide new directors,
• Handover notes.

Use technology to capture and store this knowledge securely to prevent loss.

3. Council of Advisors: Establish a team of veteran directors willing to offer consultancy services to boards. To make the council effective, create a mechanism for feedback and compensation for these advisors. Directors on the council will have no ties to industry and follow the strictest conflict of interest guidelines, ensuring that their advice is unbiased. Advisers can also help boards through decisions.

4. Incorporate Real-life Experience in Training: Engage current and past directors in CAI’s mandatory training. Add panel discussions, roundtables, video presentations, interviews, discussion groups, or other format to the existing content from CAI programs.

5. Director-Only Conferences: Facilitate platforms where current and past directors can network, share, and learn from each other.

6. Promote Committees: Encourage the formation of both permanent and ad hoc committees that can delve into specific condo challenges. Invite past directors and owners with particular expertise to be committee members. Engage consultants as part of the process as needed.

7. Neutral Directors’ Intervention: Develop a system where directors from other condos could be consulted about owner-board or manager-owner disagreements before the dispute gets out of hand.

8. Create Learning Opportunities for Owners: Knowledgeable condo owners understand their roles and responsibilities and become active and knowledgeable participants in their condominium communities.

Directors will continue to learn over their terms. Preserving their knowledge when directors leave their positions is even more critical. Directors bring perspectives that lawyers, engineers, accountants, and condo managers do not have and have inside information about their condo that no one else has.

Ensuring that condo board directors are up to governing complex multi-million-dollar buildings will positively affect the condominium’s overall financial and social well-being and reduce risk over the long term.

Pat Crosscombe is the past president of her condo board and the founder and CEO of BoardSpace, a company that provides board management software for condo boards and property managers.