Why Ontario's Condo Reserve Fund Rules Haven't Changed Since 2015

If you've been told your condo fees are going up because "the reserve fund study says so", it's reasonable to ask what the rules actually require. The short answer in Ontario is: less than most owners assume, and less than the province once planned.

The reform that was passed, and never started

In 2015 Ontario passed the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015. Among many changes, it amended the reserve fund sections of the Condominium Act (ss. 93 to 95). According to the Condominium Authority of Ontario's summary, those amendments would have provided guidance on what adequate funding means and what qualifies as a major repair, and required corporations without an adequate fund to get an expert's written opinion.

Ontario's Auditor General described the mechanism in 2020: the amendments would let the government set regulations stating "what amount of funding is adequate for a reserve fund", and Ministry planning documents said an adequately funded reserve "would not require further increases in contributions beyond the rate of inflation before the next reserve fund study was conducted." The point was to stop corporations from "intentionally shifting the burden of maintaining the condo corporation to owners in the future" (Auditor General, 2020, section 4.1.3).

Those amendments needed the government to proclaim them into force. It never did.

What the Auditor General found

The 2020 value-for-money audit of condominium oversight found that 69% of the condo boards it surveyed from older buildings (22 of the 32 corporations registered in 1980 and in 2000 whose recent financial documents it reviewed) did not have adequate amounts set aside in their reserve funds. Those boards had to raise reserve contributions by an average of 50%, with increases from 3% to 258%, phased in over one to ten years. The audit also found developer-set early condo fees were typically understated.

It recommended that the Ministry extend reserve fund studies to look 45 to 60 years ahead instead of 30, and "set thresholds and define adequacy of reserve funds" (Recommendation 3). Its reserve fund experts said a 45 to 60 year window would capture most of the expensive items and spread their cost more fairly between current and future owners, and the audit noted that future owners otherwise end up paying to repair and replace assets they did not enjoy the use of.

Two years later the follow-up audit reported that, as of November 4, 2022, the Condominium Authority had fully implemented 100% of the recommendations directed at it, the condo management regulator 79%, and the Ministry 4%. The Auditor General singled out "little or no progress on several key recommendations such as setting thresholds and defining adequacy of reserve funds" (2022 follow-up).

December 31, 2025: the reforms expired

Ontario's Legislation Act, 2006, s. 10.1, repeals provisions that have sat unproclaimed for about ten years unless the legislature acts. The 2015 reforms reached that point at the end of 2025.

In December 2025 the legislature passed Bill 72, the Buy Ontario Act, 2025 (Royal Assent December 11, 2025). It added a carve-out to the Legislation Act saving a specific list of the 2015 condo amendments from repeal. The CAO describes it as giving the government an additional year to bring them into force, and the carve-out itself is repealed on January 1, 2027 (Legislation Act, s. 10.1(5) and (6)).

| Saved until the January 1, 2027 decision | Expired December 31, 2025 | | --- | --- | | Status certificates (adding lawsuit impacts, budget changes, shared facilities) | Reserve funds (defining adequate funding and major repairs) | | Shared facilities agreements | Procurement (standardized processes) | | Owner-occupied board positions and voting | Annual budgets (owner copies, faster distribution) | | Owners' requisitioned meetings (new form) | Chargebacks (more transparency, notice timelines) | | Limits on developer clauses in governing documents | | | Board terms | |

The consolidated Condominium Act on e-Laws now notes the 2015 amendments to ss. 93, 94 and 95 as repealed under s. 10.1 of the Legislation Act on December 31, 2025. Law firms tracking the change, including Shibley Righton, read it the same way. So the plain-language summary is:

The reform that would have defined an adequate reserve fund in Ontario expired at the end of 2025 without ever taking effect.

Nothing stops the province from introducing new reserve fund rules later. As of this page's verification date, it hasn't.

The rules that do apply today

These are in force now, from the Condominium Act and O. Reg. 48/01:

• Every corporation must have a reserve fund, used only for major repair and replacement of the common elements and assets (s. 93(1) and (2)).
• Before the first study is implemented, contributions must be at least 10% of the budgeted common expenses, excluding the reserve fund (s. 93(5)). This is where the "10% rule" people quote comes from. It's a starting floor, not a lasting standard.
• After that, contributions must be the amount "reasonably expected to provide sufficient funds" for major repair and replacement, based on expected costs and life expectancy (s. 93(6)). The yardstick is the corporation's own study.
• A comprehensive study within the first year, then a new study at least every three years, alternating between updates with and without a site inspection (s. 94(4); O. Reg. 48/01, s. 31).
• The funding plan must project at least 30 years (O. Reg. 48/01, s. 29(3)). The Auditor General's 45 to 60 year recommendation was never adopted.
• Within 120 days of receiving a study, the board must propose a funding plan, and within 15 days of proposing it, send owners a notice summarizing the study and the plan, and saying where the plan differs from the study (s. 94(8) and (9)). The board implements it 30 days later (s. 94(10)).
• No owner vote is needed to spend from the reserve fund for its purpose (s. 95(2)).

What you can check yourself

Without a legal definition of "adequate", the best check is the building's own paperwork:

1. Find the last notice of future funding the board sent owners under s. 94(9). Does the plan differ from the study, and why?
2. Request the current funding plan (a core record, free electronically) and the reserve fund study itself (non-core) using the CAO's mandatory form. Our free records request builder sets both up.
3. Compare the plan to the study. Is the board contributing what the engineer recommended, or less?
4. Look at the component inventory in the study: what's close to the end of its expected life, and what's the study assuming about its condition? A study can only be as good as the maintenance records it reviewed.
5. Watch January 1, 2027. The saved reforms, particularly the richer status certificate, either come into force or lapse around then. This page will be updated when that happens.

For how a study turns into your monthly fee, see how reserve fund studies affect your fees. For the board's side, see how boards avoid special assessments.

This is general information about Ontario law, not legal or financial advice. Legislative status is as verified against e-Laws, the Legislative Assembly and the CAO on the date shown above; check the linked sources for anything newer.