Living the Condo Lifestyle
Condominium living can be a great lifestyle choice whether you’re a first-time home buyer, a family wanting to live in the city, investor or down-sizer. It enables you to live in the heart of the city while having an abundance of amenities right at your fingertips.
One of the biggest draws of condo living is the low-maintenance lifestyle.
Having a property management company to handle the maintenance and upkeep that you might not have time for or just really don’t want to do is a huge perk. This could include shoveling show, window cleaning, lawn mowing, garbage removal and repairing outside structures. Your monthly condo fee is what covers these services.
Some of the many benefits of condo living are the amenities, security and location. You can live at the centre of it all and still have easy access to work, dining, entertainment and public transportation.
Any type of home you live in is always going to have potential pitfalls. But when you’re paying a monthly condominium fee or common expense fee, it’s nice to have a way to deal with issues that arise such as personal property, noise and short-term rentals.
According to the Condominium Authority of Ontario, the top 12 common issues are:
- Records
- Cannabis
- Noise
- Personal Property
- Meetings
- Odours
- Condo Managers
- Pets
- Neighbour to Neighbour
- Rules
- Short-term Rentals
- Enforcing Settlement Agreements
If you visit the Condominium Authority of Ontario’s website you can find guided steps to help you address some of the above mentioned issues.
Another common concern for condo owners is utility costs. If your building is not submetered you could be paying for your neighbours utility consumption. The old way of utility billing (known as bulk metering) lumped everyone’s usage together. Based on the unit size, residents would pay a percentage.
Suite metering is smarter.
It puts you directly in charge of your utility consumption and you are only billed for your own usage. By implementing submetering, your unit cost could reduce by up to 30% (based on electricity costs for the average suite size).
Priority partners with condominium corporations, landlords and building managers to read the utility meters for your individual suite, track your usage accurately, and allocate costs based on how much you use. Call 1.866.836.3837 ext.2 or email [email protected] to find out more about suite metering and how Priority can support you through the metering process.
Whether you’re already enjoying the condominium lifestyle or are looking to make the move towards low-maintenance living, make sure you do some research about your rights and responsibilities as an owner and resident so that you can enjoy condominium living to its fullest.