Legal Costs for Condominium Corporations: A Refresher

The legal expenses in litigation involving Alberta condominium corporations are evolving, but the law remains far from settled. The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has recently concluded that legal fees incurred by a condominium corporation in recovering unpaid contributions or enforcing bylaws against an owner cannot be added to and treated like an assessment for common expenses and charged back to the particular owner responsible, regardless of what the corporation's bylaws might say. Legal costs are considered expenses of the corporation and must be charged proportionately to all the unit owners if not charged back to a particular unit owner. The inherent unfairness in this approach is that all bylaw-abiding, non-delinquent unit owners are required to pay the bill for the misconduct of a single owner or group of owners. There is a divergence between decisions, some of which allow disproportionate assessment, while others do not.