Ontario guide
How to answer an Ontario records request properly
An Ontario records request has a form, a clock and a fee cap. Getting any of the three wrong is what turns a routine request into a tribunal application.
The shape of a request
Under the Condominium Act, 1998, s.55 and O. Reg. 48/01:
An owner submits the mandatory Request for Records form. The board answers on the mandatory Board's Response form.
Records are core or non-core, and the two have different turnarounds and different fee treatment.
The clock starts on receipt and is visible to both sides in the portal, so neither has to take the other's word for when it started.
A worked example
Unit 805 at Maple Court asks for the landscaping contract, the three quotes behind it and the minutes of the meeting that awarded it.
The butler generates the response form, classifies each document, excludes what the Act excludes, records the reason code for every exclusion, computes the fee against the cap, and assembles the package.
The redaction log and the delivery proof stay with the request permanently.
Authority
What the statute says
Each sentence carries the section it comes from.
The Act sets out the records an owner is not entitled to examine, and a refusal must rest on one of those grounds. Condominium Act, 1998, s.55(4)
The butler shows the ground relied on and the penalty exposure for an unreasonable refusal beside it, before the response can be sent. Ontario rules pack, records module
This page explains the rules in plain language and is not legal advice.
Board questions
Questions boards ask
Can the board just email the documents?
The response goes on the mandatory form. The butler generates it, attaches the package and keeps the delivery proof, so the form is not something anyone has to remember.
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An Ontario records request has a form, a clock and a fee cap. Getting any of the three wrong is what turns a routine request into a tribunal application.