failed to adequately maintain and/or repair the common elements, with the result that the applicant’s units had suffered water penetration and damage. The applicant took the position that this failure to adequately address these water penetration issues amounted to oppressive conduct contrary to the Act, as the corporation had unfairly disregarded the applicant’s interests. The applicant sought an order that the corporation be forced to purchase the applicant’s units at fair market value. The corporation admitted that there had been water penetration issues, but took the position that it had dealt with it reasonably given the significant challenges facing the corporation. Among other things, the common elements and assets required extensive repairs, such that the most recent reserve fund study called for a $5 million loan and a special assessment of $4,000.00 per unit. In order to deal with these repairs, the corporation had implemented a plan that took into account the urgency of the
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required repairs. Given the facts, the court held that the corporation had clearly been “somewhat dilatory” with respect to addressing the applicant’s concerns until after the applicant first filed a claim against the corporation. However, the court held that this lack of a quick response did not amount to oppressive conduct contrary to section 135 of the Act. In coming to this conclusion, the court considered that the applicant had purchased the units at a discount pursuant to power of sale proceedings, and as such the applicant’s reasonable expectations with respect to maintenance and repair ought to be somewhat different than, for example, those of the purchaser of a new unit. The court further held that it would be inappropriate to second-guess the elected board of directors in the circumstances of this case. As such, the court held that the respondent’s conduct did not amount to oppression. It further held that, even if
the corporation had acted oppressively, it would be inappropriate to order a forced purchase of the applicant’s units by the corporation. Author’s Note: This case confirms that the court will be reluctant to secondguess the decisions of a board of directors. As other courts have held, the standard of review for a board’s decisions is reasonableness rather than correctness; if a board is being reasonable, the court will tend not to interfere. It is also interesting to note that the court was abruptly dismissive of the applicant’s request that the corporation be ordered to purchase the applicant’s units at fair market value. Given that the funds for such a purchase would come from all of the other unit owners, in the author’s opinion the court acted correctly in this regard, as it would be singularly inappropriate to place that kind of financial burden on the other unit owners as a result of one unit owner’s dispute with the corporation. ■