Under Ontario’s Condominium Act, 1998, every condo corporation must provide a status certificate to anyone who requests one (in practice, almost always your lawyer, acting on your behalf during the conditional period of your purchase). The corporation has a limited legal window to respond — the certificate can’t be delayed indefinitely — and it must be current as of a specific date, not a stale document from months earlier.
A thorough status certificate review looks past the checkbox summary and into the substance:
A status certificate request is typically made once your offer is accepted and you’re inside your conditional period, giving your lawyer time to review it and advise you before your financing and status-certificate conditions are due to be waived. The fee for the certificate itself is regulated by the province and modest — your lawyer or realtor can confirm the current amount — and is usually paid by the buyer requesting it.
Your real estate agent typically requests it on your behalf once your offer is accepted, using a status certificate condition written into the agreement of purchase and sale.
Yes, if you go in with your eyes open. Some buyers proceed anyway because the price already reflects the risk, or because the issue (a well-managed special assessment, for instance) doesn’t change their plans. The point of the review is to make that an informed choice, not a surprise after closing.
It reflects the corporation’s status as of the date it was issued — it isn’t meant to be relied on indefinitely, which is one reason it’s ordered close to your actual purchase rather than far in advance.
A newly registered corporation will have one, but with a much shorter history — less financial track record, and often a reserve fund study based on projections rather than years of real building performance. The review still matters; it’s just reading a different kind of risk.
Your real estate lawyer typically requests it on your behalf once your offer is accepted, using a status certificate condition written into the agreement of purchase and sale.
Yes, if you go in with your eyes open. Some buyers proceed anyway because the price already reflects the risk, or because the issue (a well-managed special assessment, for instance) doesn’t change their plans. The point of the review is to make that an informed choice, not a surprise after closing.
It reflects the corporation’s status as of the date it was issued — it isn’t meant to be relied on indefinitely, which is one reason it’s ordered close to your actual purchase rather than far in advance.
A newly registered corporation will have one, but with a much shorter history — less financial track record, and often a reserve fund study based on projections rather than years of real building performance. The review still matters; it’s just reading a different kind of risk.