The Maintenance Records Your Ontario Condo Should Have

When owners ask "is this building well maintained?", the honest answer is usually in paperwork, not in the lobby. This guide lists the maintenance records a condo corporation in Ontario keeps, which of them the law requires, how long each is kept, and how to ask for them. For the request process itself, see what records you can request as an owner.

The short version

| Record | Required? | Kept for | Core or non-core | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Service and maintenance contracts (elevator, HVAC, fire protection, and so on) | Yes, Act s. 55(1) para. 8 | At all times while in force; 7 years after expiry | Non-core | | Invoices for repair and maintenance work | Yes, financial records, s. 55(1) para. 1 | At least 7 years | Non-core | | Engineering and other professional reports on the building | Yes, O. Reg. 48/01 s. 13.1(1) para. 9 | At least 7 years | Non-core | | Warranties and guarantees | Yes, s. 13.1(1) para. 8 | At all times while in force; 7 years after expiry | Non-core | | Drawings and plans | Yes, s. 13.1(1) para. 10 | At all times | Non-core | | Reserve fund studies (with the component inventory) | Yes, s. 55(1) para. 7 | At all times | Non-core | | The board's current reserve funding plan | Yes | At all times | Core | | The performance audit report (newer buildings) | Yes, s. 55(1) para. 5 | At all times | Non-core | | Records of changes to the common elements | Yes, s. 13.1(1) para. 13 | At least 7 years | Non-core | | An equipment register with service history by asset | Good practice; see below | | |

The records the law names

Contracts. The corporation must keep a copy of every agreement it signs (s. 55(1), para. 8 of the Condominium Act). For the building's equipment, that's the elevator maintenance contract, the HVAC and boiler service contracts, fire alarm and sprinkler inspection contracts, and so on. A contract tells you what the vendor is supposed to do and how often. It's the baseline everything else gets measured against.

Invoices. Financial records must be kept for at least seven years (O. Reg. 48/01, s. 13.1(2)). Invoices are the closest thing most buildings have to a service history, because each one says what was done, when, to what, and at what cost. Ask for them by equipment or area ("invoices for work on the domestic hot water boilers, 2022 to 2026") rather than "all invoices", which invites a large fee.

Engineering and professional reports. Every report or opinion from an architect, engineer or similar professional about the physical features of the property is a prescribed record, kept at least seven years (s. 13.1(1), para. 9). Garage condition surveys, roof assessments, facade inspections, mechanical audits and noise studies all fall here.

Warranties. The corporation must keep every existing and expired warranty and guarantee relating to the property (s. 13.1(1), para. 8). A warranty is only worth anything if someone knows it exists before it expires.

Drawings and plans. Kept at all times (s. 13.1(1), para. 10). Useful when a repair needs to know where a riser or a drain actually runs.

Reserve fund studies. A record of all of them, kept at all times (s. 55(1), para. 7). The study contains the building's component inventory: every item expected to need major repair or replacement within at least 30 years and costing $500 or more, with its age, normal expected life, remaining life, and estimated replacement cost (O. Reg. 48/01, ss. 27 and 29). It's the nearest thing to an official equipment list most buildings have, and it's a non-core record, so ask for it by name.

The record the law assumes

Here's the gap. No section of the Act or the regulation says "keep a maintenance log for each piece of equipment". But the regulation plainly assumes one exists. When an engineer or other qualified person does a comprehensive reserve fund study, or an update with a site inspection, they must review:

the repair and maintenance records and schedules in the custody or under the control of the corporation

along with every warranty, guarantee and service contract for each item in the component inventory (O. Reg. 48/01, s. 30(3)). And the list of records in s. 55(1) begins with "adequate records, including", which means it isn't exhaustive. Whether a missing maintenance history makes a corporation's records inadequate is something the Condominium Authority Tribunal decides case by case; our adequacy guide for boards covers how.

What good looks like

A well-run corporation can answer these questions quickly, for any major component:

1. What is it? Make, model, serial number, location.
2. How old is it, and how long should it last? Install date and expected life, ideally matching the reserve fund study's component inventory.
3. Who looks after it, under what contract? Vendor, scope, visit frequency, contract term.
4. What's been done to it? Dated visits, findings, repairs and replacements, with the invoices attached.
5. What did the professionals say? Engineering or inspection reports that assessed it, and what the board did in response.
6. Is it still under warranty? And until when.

Buildings that can answer those questions for the boilers, pumps, elevators, fan coils, roof and garage have a maintenance record. Buildings that can only answer them by asking the current manager to go through email do not, however good their intentions.

Why it matters to you as an owner

• Your fees. The reserve fund study built from this record decides your monthly contribution. A study built on real service history is more reliable than one built on assumptions. See how reserve fund studies affect your fees.
• Disputes. Chargebacks, water damage between units and equipment noise all turn on what the record shows about when a component was last serviced. Our guide to condo noise that's really an equipment problem shows how.
• Buying and selling. A status certificate tells you about money. It doesn't tell you whether the building knows what condition its equipment is in. See what to check before buying.

How to ask

List the records you want in the non-core section of the CAO's mandatory Request for Records form, one per row, each with a date range. Be specific to keep the fee down. Owners have won maintenance-related records at the Tribunal: in Arrowsmith v. PCC 94 (2018) the records included mould remediation in the common element sauna and mailroom, and in Brown v. PCC 21 (2020) the order covered a decade of maintenance contracts.

Our free records request builder has these maintenance records as one-tap suggestions, fills in the form entries for you, and calculates your deadlines.

This is general information about Ontario law, not legal advice. Retention periods and record categories are from the Condominium Act, 1998 and O. Reg. 48/01 as consolidated on e-Laws; check the linked sources for changes.