Fire Code Fines Just Got Bigger, and Self-Managed Boards Have No One Else to Catch It

If your condo doesn't have a management company, no one is quietly checking your fire safety paperwork behind the scenes. That job now falls squarely on your volunteer board, and Ontario just raised the stakes on getting it wrong.

The Ontario Fire Code saw its biggest set of updates in years take effect in January, and while a lot of the coverage has focused on new equipment requirements, the enforcement changes matter just as much, especially if your board doesn't have professional management staff catching compliance gaps for you. Here's what changed, what it means for your personal exposure as a director, and what you can actually do about it starting this week.

The court step is gone

Before this update, if a municipality's fire inspector wanted to fine a building for non-compliance, they had to go through the Ontario Court of Justice first. That step added time, and in practice, it gave corporations room to fix problems before a fine ever landed. Ontario has now removed that middle step for many violations, allowing municipalities to issue fines directly under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act. That means the buffer self-managed boards may have been quietly relying on, even without realizing it, is gone.

Under the Act, a corporation convicted of a fire code offence can be fined up to $500,000 for a first offence, rising to $1,500,000 for a subsequent one. Individual directors are not automatically shielded from this. If a director knowingly allows the corporation to violate the fire code, they can be personally fined up to $50,000 for a first offence and up to $100,000 for a subsequent one, and in some cases even face up to a year in jail. These figures are laid out directly in Section 28 of the FPPA, and they apply whether or not your corporation has a management company standing between the board and the paperwork.

This isn't theoretical. In at least one recent Ontario case, a condo corporation, its management company, and the board president were all named individually after a fire safety failure. If you're a self-managed board, there's no management company to be named alongside you. It's just the corporation and the directors.

Why this hits harder without a management company

Professionally managed buildings usually have staff whose job includes tracking inspection schedules, chasing down deficiency reports, and flagging when a fire contractor's paperwork doesn't meet the newer testing standards, like the CAN/ULC S536 and S537 requirements now in effect for fire alarm inspections. Self-managed boards are doing all of that off the side of their desk, often with volunteers who have full-time jobs and no fire safety background.

That gap is exactly what the fire code changes are designed to close. Inspectors now expect corporations to show documented deficiencies and proof of corrective action, not just a signed inspection report. If your fire log book is a folder nobody has opened since the last annual test, that's a real problem under the current rules.

What actually protects you as a director

The good news is that Ontario law gives directors real protection, provided you're acting in good faith. Section 37 of the Condominium Act sets the standard: directors must act honestly, in good faith, and with the care a reasonably prudent person would show in the same situation. Directors are also entitled to reasonably rely on the advice of experts, like an engineer or fire consultant, when making decisions outside their own expertise. The Condominium Authority of Ontario's guide on governing condos walks through this standard in more detail, and it's worth having your board read together.

Two practical protections matter most for self-managed boards right now.

1. Confirm your corporation has Directors and Officers liability insurance and a bylaw that indemnifies directors under Sections 38 and 39 of the Condominium Act. This coverage is required by law and does not protect directors who act dishonestly or in bad faith, but for a board that's genuinely trying to stay compliant, it's the backstop that matters. The Condominium Authority of Ontario's insurance page explains what this coverage does and doesn't cover.

   
   

2. Document everything. If your fire alarm contractor flags a deficiency, write down what was found, what your board decided to do about it, and when it was completed. If a fire inspector issues a notice of violation, respond to it, ask questions, and keep a written record of that communication. Inspectors are generally not looking to punish boards that are actively working on a problem. They're far more concerned with corporations that have no record of doing anything at all.

   
   

Start With One Conversation

You don't need to hire a full-time compliance officer to get ahead of this.

Start by calling your fire alarm contractor and asking directly whether their testing and reporting reflect the current Ontario Fire Code requirements. Ask where your fire safety plan and deficiency records are kept, and confirm someone on your board actually knows. That one phone call costs you nothing and closes the biggest gap most self-managed boards don't know they have.

Read also: Avoiding Legal Frustration: How to Handle Non-Compliant Residents in Small Condos Without Burning Out, which has more on protecting yourself and your board when enforcement gets personal.