The condo juristic person & common fees

Buying a condo unit also makes you a member of the building’s juristic person — the legal entity, formed automatically under the Condominium Act once a building is registered, that owns and manages the common areas and represents all unit owners collectively. Understanding how it works, and what its finances actually look like, is part of due diligence that is easy to skip because it feels administrative rather than legal.

What the juristic person actually is

The condominium juristic person is a distinct legal entity separate from any individual owner, the developer, or the management company that may be hired to handle day-to-day operations. It holds title to the common areas (lobbies, pools, corridors, structural elements), and it is the body legally responsible for maintaining them, collecting common fees, and enforcing the building’s house rules. Owners do not deal with each other directly to resolve shared building issues — they deal with the juristic person, typically through an elected committee and a general manager or hired management company.

Common fees: what they actually pay for

Common-area maintenance fees, charged periodically to every owner (often based on unit size), fund the ongoing operating costs of the building — staff, utilities for common areas, routine maintenance, insurance, and management costs. These are set by the juristic person’s committee, generally within parameters approved at an owners’ general meeting, not by any government body, and the amount and what it covers varies significantly building to building. Before buying, get the current fee schedule and ask specifically what it includes and excludes — some buildings bundle more into the base fee than others.

The sinking fund: a different pot of money

Separate from ongoing common fees, most buildings maintain a sinking fund — a reserve built up over time (often through a one-off contribution at initial purchase, plus periodic top-ups) intended to cover major capital expenses that ordinary common fees are not meant to fund: roof replacement, major structural repair, lift replacement, and similar large, infrequent costs. A building with a healthy, adequately funded sinking fund is in a materially stronger position than one that has let it run low, because when a major repair is actually needed, an underfunded sinking fund typically means a special assessment charged suddenly to every owner, sometimes at short notice.

Checking a building’s financial health before buying

• Ask for the juristic person’s recent financial statements or a summary of the sinking fund balance and common-fee arrears among other owners.
• Ask whether any special assessment is currently planned or under discussion, and why.
• Ask about the building’s age and the condition of major shared systems (lifts, roof, structural waterproofing) relative to the sinking fund’s size.
• A building with widespread common-fee arrears among owners is a warning sign — it usually means the juristic person has less money to maintain the building than the fee schedule suggests on paper.

This sits alongside the title and encumbrance checks described in due diligence & title checks, and is worth doing before you commit, not after you already own the unit.

Owner voting rights and general meetings

Major decisions — approving the budget, electing the committee, approving special assessments, changing house rules — are generally decided at owners’ general meetings, with voting rights typically weighted by unit size or ownership share rather than one vote per owner. As a foreign freehold owner, you have the same voting rights as any other owner of an equivalent unit. Attending or sending a proxy to general meetings, and reading the minutes if you cannot attend, is a practical way to stay informed about the building’s direction and finances rather than finding out about problems after the fact.

What happens when fees go unpaid

The Condominium Act gives the juristic person mechanisms to pursue unpaid common fees, which can include registered liens against the delinquent unit and, in serious and prolonged cases, legal action. If you are buying a resale unit, confirm the current owner has no outstanding common-fee arrears before you complete — unpaid fees can complicate a transfer and, depending on the building’s rules and the specifics of your purchase, are a matter you want resolved by the seller before registration, not inherited by you afterward.

Short-term rental rules in condos

Whether you can legally rent out a condo unit short-term (daily or weekly, in the style of a hotel or serviced apartment) is governed by a combination of national hotel-licensing law and the specific building’s own house rules, and the two do not always align with what buyers assume from looking at similar listings on booking platforms. Many condominium buildings restrict or prohibit short-term rentals through their house rules regardless of the national legal position, precisely because of the impact on security, common-area wear and other owners’ quiet enjoyment. If short-term rental income is part of your reason for buying, confirm the building’s actual current rules and the applicable licensing position directly, in writing, before you buy — not from a rental listing you saw for a similar unit, which may or may not be operating within the rules.

The juristic person and disputes

Disagreements between an owner and the juristic person — over a fee assessment, a house-rule enforcement, or a maintenance failure — are one of the more common sources of ongoing friction in condo ownership, generally resolved first through the building’s own governance processes and, if unresolved, potentially through mediation or the courts. See property disputes & resolution.