Every Ontario condominium manager eventually fields the same call: water is coming through the ceiling of a tenth-floor unit, the owner below insists the corporation must pay, the owner above has gone quiet, and the board wants an answer before the drywall invoice lands. Condo repair responsibility in Ontario comes down to two short provisions of the Condominium Act, 1998 - Section 89 and Section 90 - plus whatever your corporation's declaration says about them. Get the split wrong and you either spend common expense funds on an owner's problem or bill an owner for work the corporation was obliged to do. Here is how the default rules work, where the exceptions hide, and how to run the repair itself without drama.
What Sections 89 and 90 Actually Say
The Act does something that surprises new managers and most owners: it treats maintenance and repair after damage as two separate legal obligations, and it assigns them differently.
Section 89: repair after damage
Section 89 makes the corporation responsible for repairing the units and the common elements after damage. Read that carefully - the duty covers the units themselves, not just the hallways and the roof. If a fire or a burst pipe damages a suite, the starting position under the Act is that the corporation carries out the repair.
There are two major carve-outs. First, the obligation does not extend to improvements an owner has made to the unit. Second, the declaration can shift the burden, and in practice most declarations do - more on that below.
Section 90: maintenance
Section 90 splits maintenance the way most people intuitively expect: the corporation maintains the common elements and each owner maintains their own unit. Under the Act, the duty to maintain includes repairing things that fail through normal wear and tear. A toilet that finally gives out, tired caulking around a tub or a worn-out in-suite fixture is the owner's job. The corridor carpet, the elevators, the roof membrane and the parking garage belong to the corporation.
Why the distinction matters
The same broken component can land on either side of the ledger depending on how it broke. A window seal that failed from age is wear and tear; a window smashed by storm debris is damage. Before you assign condo repair responsibility in Ontario on any file, document the cause of failure - a plumber's report or an engineer's note settles arguments that opinions never will.
Condo Repair Responsibility in Ontario Starts With the Declaration
Section 91 of the Act allows the declaration to alter the default allocation, and almost every declaration takes up the offer. Common modifications include:
- Making owners responsible for repairing damage within their own units, reversing the Section 89 default.
- Assigning maintenance of exclusive-use common elements - balconies, patios, front yards in townhouse condos - to the owners who enjoy them, while the corporation keeps structural repair.
- Extending an owner's responsibility for the corporation's insurance deductible when damage originates in their unit.
The practical rule: never answer a who-fixes-what question from the Act alone. Pull the declaration, check the unit boundary descriptions in the schedules, and read any relevant by-laws. Two buildings on the same street can allocate the identical leak in opposite directions. When a board wants a plain-language orientation, the Condominium Authority of Ontario's public resources are a sensible starting point, but the declaration remains the document that governs.
The Standard Unit and Owner Improvements
The corporation's repair and insurance obligations stop at the standard unit - the baseline set of finishes and fixtures defined in a standard unit by-law or in the corporation's governing documents. Everything above that baseline is an improvement: hardwood laid over the original broadloom, upgraded cabinetry, pot lights, a glass shower where a tub used to be.
After damage, this plays out in a predictable sequence. The corporation, or its insurer, restores the suite to standard unit specification. The owner is responsible for reinstating improvements, usually through their own unit owner's insurance policy. Managers who keep the standard unit definition on file, and share it with restoration contractors at the scoping stage, avoid the classic dispute where an owner expects a custom kitchen rebuilt on the corporation's dime.
Who Typically Fixes What: A Working Checklist
Every allocation below is subject to your declaration, but this is how condo repair responsibility in Ontario commonly falls:
- Risers and pipes serving more than one unit - common elements; the corporation repairs and maintains them.
- Branch pipes and fixtures serving only one unit - typically the owner's, though the boundary definitions in the declaration decide the exact handover point.
- Windows and exterior doors - usually common elements the corporation repairs, with the declaration often assigning cleaning and minor upkeep to owners.
- Balconies and patios - commonly exclusive-use common elements: the owner handles routine maintenance, the corporation handles structural repair.
- In-suite heat pumps and fan coils - the most inconsistent category in the province; some declarations treat them as part of the unit, others as common elements. Check before dispatching anyone.
- Flooring, cabinets, appliances and other finishes - part of the unit or improvements, so the owner maintains them and, under most declarations, repairs them too.
If an owner refuses to carry out work they are responsible for, the Act also gives the corporation a path to do the work itself and charge the cost back to the owner - a useful lever, but one to pull with legal advice rather than by reflex.
Insurance, Deductibles and Chargebacks
Section 99 of the Act requires the corporation to insure the units and common elements against major perils, and that coverage excludes improvements. This is why the corporation's insurer often funds a repair even when the source of the damage was inside a suite. Section 105 then allows the corporation to recover its deductible from an owner in defined circumstances, such as where the owner's act or omission caused the damage, and many declarations broaden that recovery.
For managers untangling condo repair responsibility in Ontario after a loss, sequence matters: establish the cause, restore the standard unit, deal with the deductible under Section 105 and the declaration, and leave improvements and contents to the owner's own policy. Encourage every owner to carry a proper condominium unit owner's policy - it is the piece that makes the whole framework hold together.
Booking the Right Contractor for the Right Side of the Wall
Once condo repair responsibility in Ontario is settled on paper, execution becomes the next risk. Most real losses end with two scopes of work: the corporation's contractor restoring common elements and standard unit finishes, and the owner's contractor reinstating improvements. Running both scopes through one trade without written instructions is how invoices end up contested at the next board meeting.
Platforms like PlanaJob let property managers post a clearly scoped job and compare quotes from vetted contractors, and the split works both ways - PlanaJob helps condo boards and unit owners each book the right contractor for their side of the wall. Managers can see how it fits a condo portfolio at PlanaJob for property managers, and creating an account at planajob.com/signup takes a few minutes. Contractors looking to build a repeatable condo repair niche will find useful thinking on positioning and pricing at Construction Arbitrage.
For more plain-language answers to compliance questions like this one, browse the PlanaJob blog.
FAQ
Is the condo corporation responsible for repairs inside my unit in Ontario?
Sometimes. The default under Section 89 is that the corporation repairs units after damage, excluding improvements, while Section 90 makes owners responsible for maintenance and normal wear and tear inside their suites. Most declarations shift damage repair within the unit back to the owner, so the declaration is the document that decides.
Who pays for water damage between units in an Ontario condo?
It depends on the cause and on the declaration. The corporation's insurance typically responds for damage to common elements and standard unit finishes, the deductible may be charged back under Section 105 where an owner's act or omission caused the loss, and each owner's own policy covers their improvements and contents.
What is a standard unit and why does it matter?
The standard unit is the baseline set of finishes defined in a standard unit by-law or the corporation's governing documents. It caps what the corporation must repair and insure after damage. Anything an owner added above that baseline is an improvement, which the owner must insure and reinstate themselves.