Strawberry Park Towns | U/C

[danbrotherston]

I wouldn’t call a townhome or house with an HOA freehold either, AFAIK in Ontario a condo corporation is more or less the same thing as an HOA.  Or to put it another way, the condominium act governs condominium corporations which are legislated to manage common property, ergo they are just called condos. But it’s possible there are other forms of common property management in that I am unaware of. I don’t think freehold has a precise definition but I wouldn’t use it to describe any property with additional levels of common property management below that of the city government.  It’s possible that the units facing the road are different from the interior ones, or it is possible that my friend has a different definition of freehold.

No, a condominium corp is governed by specific Provincial legislation.  An HOA is governed only by the reciprocal agreement that created it.

But by what legislated power?  An HOA which is not enforced under legislation couldn't be mandated that the residents become members and pay dues or fees.

Basically, AFAIK condos work because the condo act says that this building is subdivided into owner owned portions and common elements, and a condo corporation exists to manage the common elements of which all owners in the property are members of the corporation.

Is there another piece of legislation that provides a similar setup?

Because otherwise, freehold property is just property, and I can buy it, with no other strings attached, an "optional" HOA is pretty likely to fail.

Edit: Thanks ijmorlan: It does sound like a common elements corporation. I should have remembered such things from doing the training. That concept is weird to me, because I don't understand what the difference is between a "freehold" (if that term applies) property bonded to a "common elements condominium corporation" and a unit in a tranditional condo corporation. I mean, there might be legal differences, but so long as membership and dues are enforced in law, then the effect should be the same....although possibly the management could differ.

Curious--worth reading further.

Edit 2: This reference has less legalese https://www.condoauthorityontario.ca/en-...ium-types/ But yes, I really do not understand if there are any meaningful differences between a standard condo and a common elements condo from that site.

It describes different legal situations which arrive at the same implications on your lets call them "freedoms and responsibilities", although the common elements corporation sounds more..limited...in that common elements cannot exist within the physical parcels of land that the townhomes sit on (i.e., the roofs cannot be common elements as they are in some condos), but I don't understand how that would be different than defining the units of a standard condominium as literally the property parcel boundaries.