Condo Fee Increase in Quebec: Who Decides

The notice of meeting announces higher common expenses and nobody asked your opinion. It is probably legal. Since August 14, 2025, every syndicate in Quebec must put a number on the future of its building, and that number becomes contributions. Here is where the increase comes from, who decides it, and the only recourse that exists.

Why condo fees are rising everywhere in Quebec since Bill 16

The Regulation establishing various rules respecting divided co-ownership, made by Order in Council 991-2025 and published in the Gazette officielle du Québec on July 30, 2025, has been in force since August 14, 2025. The government says it plainly: neither the board of directors nor the general meeting can decide to opt out of it. Two documents flow from it, the maintenance logbook and the contingency fund study, and above all a calendar. That calendar is the real cause of the increases being announced these days.

Until those amounts are set, section 153 imposes a floor: at least 5% of the contributions to common expenses go to the contingency fund. That is an administrative floor, not an assessment of your building, and the study replaces it with the real figure.

An increase is therefore not in itself proof of bad management. It is often the first time the building has put a price on its roof and its elevators. The full calendar is detailed in the Bill 16 obligations to check.

What the contingency fund study really puts a number on

Section 8 of the Regulation says what matters. The study is based on the list, entered in the maintenance logbook, of the major repairs and replacements to be carried out over at least the next 25 years. At a minimum it must contain the balance of the fund used to prepare it, an estimate of the cost of each major repair in its estimated year of completion, a recommendation on the amount that should be available at the start of each year and on the amounts to pay in annually, and then an explanation of the calculations.

The word “estimated” does all the work. A roof planned in fourteen years is costed in dollars of its year of completion, not in today’s dollars. That is why an honest syndicate, in a well maintained building, can still announce a serious increase. Section 9 also requires the study to be signed and dated by its author: a document with no signature and no date is not a study.

Who decides the increase: the board sets it, the meeting is consulted

Article 1072 of the Code civil du Québec contains the sentence few co-owners have read. Each year, the board of directors sets, after consultation with the general meeting, the contribution to common expenses, which includes the amounts to pay into the contingency fund and the self-insurance fund. The syndicate then notifies each co-owner without delay of the amount of their contributions and the date they are due. Consulting is not holding a vote, and the Code requires no longer notice.

The general meeting votes for real elsewhere. Article 1096 governs ordinary decisions by a majority of the votes of those present or represented, and article 1097 requires three quarters of those votes for work to transform, enlarge or improve the common portions, as well as for the apportionment of its cost. The dividing line: repairing or replacing belongs to the board, improving or enlarging belongs to the meeting. Ask which box the work falls into before you discuss the amount. And remember that each vote is proportional to the relative value of the fraction (article 1090).

Your real power is exercised before the meeting. The notice of the annual meeting must be accompanied by the balance sheet, the statement of income, the statement of debts and claims, the budget forecast and a note on the essential terms of any proposed contract and any planned work (article 1087). Since the syndicate is a legal person (article 1039), that notice goes out at least 10 days and at most 45 days before the meeting (article 346), and members representing 10% of the votes can require a meeting to be called (article 352). Article 1088 gives you five days after receipt to have a question added to the agenda. Five days, once a year: that is where the discussion is won or lost.

Before you judge the increase abusive, measure what it does to your file: the affordability calculator shows the effect of a higher monthly charge on what a lender will grant you at the next renewal.

Your share follows relative value, not square footage

Article 1064 sets the apportionment: each co-owner contributes to common expenses in proportion to the relative value of their fraction. That value is established in the declaration according to the nature, destination, dimensions and location of the private portion, without regard to its use (article 1041). Two units of the same size can therefore pay different amounts without any mistake, and a decision that would change that value against the declaration would be without effect (article 1102).

Judicial review exists, but it is narrow: article 1068 opens it within five years of the registration of the declaration, and only if the gap exceeds one tenth. After that period, the apportionment is the one you bought.

Can you challenge a condo fee increase in Quebec?

Yes, but not the way people imagine, and the recourse depends on who made the decision.

If the increase comes from the board, it is article 1086.2: any co-owner or director can ask the court to annul or, exceptionally, to modify the decision if it is biased, if it was made with the intent to harm the co-owners or in disregard of their rights, and the action must be brought within 90 days of the decision, failing which the right is forfeited. If it comes from the general meeting, it is article 1103: the same grounds, plus an error in counting the votes, and 90 days from the meeting.

Three things to understand before you call a lawyer. Forfeiture is not prescription: after 90 days, the right to act no longer exists. Neither of these articles lets you argue that a different increase would have been wiser. And article 1103 allows the court to order a plaintiff whose action is frivolous or vexatious to pay damages.

Meanwhile, you pay. The syndicate can register a legal hypothec on the fraction of a co-owner in default for more than 30 days (article 2729), and a co-owner who has not paid their share for more than three months becomes ineligible to serve as a director (article 1086). Withholding your contribution in protest always backfires on the person who does it. I am a broker, not a lawyer: an action in annulment is prepared with a legal professional, and the 90 day clock starts without you.

The syndicate’s insurance, the other driver of the increase

The Insurance Bureau of Canada describes the mechanism for Quebec condominiums: the rise in claims has led to a tightening of the insurance market for syndicates, with more limited coverage and higher premiums and deductibles. The IBC publishes no average percentage, and I will not invent one.

What can be verified is the link between the deductible and your bill. Article 1071.1 requires the syndicate to set up a self-insurance fund dedicated to paying the deductibles on its policies, and article 1072 places the amounts paid into it among your common expenses: a rising deductible pushes up a line of your budget, even without a claim. Article 1073 also requires the insured amount to allow the building to be rebuilt and to be assessed at least every five years.

An IBC survey carried out in 2020 measures the blind spot: one co-owner in two does not know the amount of the deductible on their syndicate’s insurance. How the contribution to the self-insurance fund is calculated is detailed in condo fees and the contingency fund.

Buyers: spotting an increase before it is announced

The syndicate’s attestation that the seller must give you contains three lines that signal an increase well before it is decided. Section 10 of the Regulation makes them mandatory.

Contributions required versus contributions paid, over three years. Paragraph 2 requires both amounts. A lasting gap between what the board billed and what the co-owners paid signals a collection problem, and the shortfall falls back on those who pay.

The surplus or deficit in the last three financial statements. Paragraph 4. Three deficits in a row are not made up any other way than by an increase or a special assessment.

The work planned over ten years, with its estimated date and cost. Paragraph 8 d). Put that total next to the fund balance and the study’s recommendation, required under paragraph 1. The gap is your real question for the seller.

Add the minutes of the board and of the meetings, which article 1070 places in the syndicate’s register along with the logbook and the study: a special assessment almost always appears in the minutes before it exists in a notice.

Frequently asked questions

The board raised my fees without a vote of the meeting. Is that legal? Yes, in most cases: article 1072 gives it the task of setting the annual contribution after consultation. The meeting’s vote is used elsewhere, notably at three quarters of the votes for improvement work and the apportionment of its cost.

Can I withhold my contribution until the board explains itself? No, and it is the worst time to do it. After 30 days in default, the syndicate can register a legal hypothec on your fraction. After three months, you become ineligible to sit on the board.

My syndicate does not have a contingency fund study yet. What happens next? It has until three years and one day after August 14, 2025 to obtain it, and until then at least 5% of your contributions go to the fund. The board then sets the amounts within 30 days of the first annual meeting that follows, with no more than 10 years to close the gap.

By how much do condo fees go up on average in Quebec? No Quebec public source publishes that figure. The IBC describes an upward trend in premiums and deductibles without quantifying it, and nothing compiles the common expenses of Quebec syndicates. An average percentage announced by a broker is invented.

To go further, read the red flags you can verify on paper and keeping or selling in the face of a special assessment.

An increase announced in your building, or a condo you are interested in? Write to me: we read the syndicate’s attestation, the minutes and the last three financial statements together before you decide.

Georges Matar

Residential Real Estate Broker · RE/MAX DU CARTIER INC.

Contact Georges