My Condo Board Won't Give Me Records: What to Do in Ontario

Records are the biggest source of disputes in Ontario condos. In 2024-25 the Condominium Authority Tribunal accepted 341 cases, and 164 of them were about condo records, the largest category. The CAO's own annual report notes that records cases "continue to represent the largest category of cases filed with the Tribunal."

If you're here, you've probably already asked. This guide assumes you've read what records you can request and used the mandatory form. If you haven't used the form, start there: the Tribunal process depends on it.

First, work out which problem you have

There are four, and they have different deadlines.

| What happened | Your deadline to file with the Tribunal | Rule | | --- | --- | --- | | No response at all after 30 days | 6 months from delivering your request | O. Reg. 48/01, s. 13.10(2) | | The board refused some or all records | 60 days from receiving the response | s. 13.10(1) | | The fee is too high | 60 days from receiving the response | s. 13.10(1) | | You got the records but they're incomplete, inaccurate, or don't exist | The adequacy issue must have happened within the last 2 years | CAO guidance |

The 60-day rule is the trap. Within 60 days of the board's response you must either pay the fee and return the response, or apply to the Tribunal. Do neither and the request is deemed abandoned. A late response isn't automatically a refusal, either: the CAO points to a case where a response 13 days late was not treated as a refusal because the corporation intended to provide the records.

Before filing: one last written ask

The CAO suggests writing to the corporation one final time, and publishes templates for exactly this ("I have not received a response", "I am dissatisfied with the response", "I have concerns related to adequacy", "I have concerns related to cost") on its records page. Keep it short, cite the section, and give a date. It also builds your record for the Tribunal.

Refusals the Tribunal has not accepted

The board's response must give a written reason and the provision it relies on for each refusal (O. Reg. 48/01, s. 13.3(7)). Some reasons that haven't held up:

• "The form wasn't filled in properly." Not a reasonable excuse if the request is clear (Arrowsmith v. PCC 94, 2018 ONCAT 10).
• "You owe arrears." In Brown v. PCC 21, 2020 ONCAT 26, the corporation withheld records because the owner was in arrears. The Tribunal ordered years of financial statements, minutes and maintenance contracts produced, plus a $4,000 penalty and $200 in costs.
• "It's a fishing expedition." In Shoom v. YRSCC 1090, 2022 ONCAT 145, an owner asked for a year of records on cleanliness, security, repairs and water issues. The corporation argued improper purpose and undue burden. The Tribunal held he was entitled to the records.

When the fee is the refusal

A fee quote can do the work of a refusal. Two decisions show where the Tribunal draws the line.

In Shoom, the corporation first charged $80 for a response both sides agreed missed the point, then quoted $15,606.20 to produce the records. The Tribunal accepted some of the labour estimates (about $1 per daily security log, since each had to be downloaded, printed and redacted one at a time), but cut the fee for email records from $14,300 to $7,150. It found that being "unable to produce a comparatively small number of records without physically reviewing thousands of emails is evidence that its email system does not comply" with the regulation's electronic records rule, and split that cost between the parties.

In Jalbout v. CCC 272, 2025 ONCAT 70, the manager answered by email instead of the mandatory form and asked for per-page and hourly fees to compile invoices. The Tribunal found "both outright refusals and the use of fee demands to, essentially, 'mask' refusals, both without reasonable excuse," ordered a $1,200 penalty and reimbursed the owner's $200 in Tribunal fees. It also ordered that paper copies be charged at no more than 20 cents a page. The records the owner won included the reports behind charges added to her common expense account, which is worth knowing if you're fighting a chargeback: ask for the documents behind it first.

How the Tribunal process works

The Condominium Authority Tribunal is online and designed for people without lawyers. It runs in three stages (CAO fees):

1. Negotiation. $25 filing fee. You and the corporation try to settle online.
2. Mediation. $50. A CAT mediator helps.
3. Adjudication. $125. A Tribunal Member hears the case and makes a binding order.

That's $200 if it goes all the way. The fees aren't refundable, but the unsuccessful party typically has to reimburse the successful party's fees. Under s. 1.44 of the Act, the Tribunal can order the records produced, set or reduce the fee, award costs, and, if the corporation refused without reasonable excuse, order it to pay you a penalty of up to $5,000. If the corporation doesn't pay within 30 days, an owner can set the amount off against their common expenses (s. 1.45(3)).

What the Tribunal can't do for you

It can get you records that exist. It can't make a corporation create a record it was never required to keep, or answer questions instead of producing records. That limit shows up in the numbers: Ontario's Auditor General found that owners did not get part or all of what they sought in 21 of 41 records cases (51%) before the Tribunal between November 2017 and March 2020, and in each of those cases the reason was that the corporation was not required by law to keep the information asked for.

That's also why the adequacy question matters. If a record the corporation is required to keep doesn't exist, the dispute stops being about access and becomes about whether the corporation kept adequate records at all.

Before you start

Build your request with our free records request builder. It maps your choices onto the mandatory form, writes a covering letter, and gives you the calendar dates for every deadline above.

This is general information about Ontario law, not legal advice. Tribunal outcomes depend on the facts of each case. For a dispute with real money at stake, speak to a condo lawyer or licensed paralegal, and check the CAO's current guidance before filing.