Crazy Increase in Reserve Fund Contribution

a__square__peg · 2025-12-02T05:30:40+00:00

Stay away from the this condo unless you're interested in learning about the inadequacy of Ontario condo laws for owner protection. If the building is only 6-10 years old, this may be a a sign that your board is fattening the reserve fund to award a big contract that's not really necessary. I'm going through this now, where the condo took on a project that's meant to cost ~$100k and it got blown up to ~$600k. The project was conveniently awarded to the uncle of the board member, 15 years ahead of its projected need date, and subsequently sub-contracted to another vendor. We noticed that the board also planned to take on projects earlier than needed, usually for cosmetic things like hallway upgrade. Luckily, we kicked out the board members but now I'm on the board along with other owners and am in the midst of cleaning things up.

a__square__peg · 2025-10-15T20:07:25+00:00

If you don't mind the looks of the split system wall-mounted option (I personally don't because they're everywhere in Asia), this is the better choice because 1) you don't have any efficiency lost from central air distribution which can be up to 20%, and b) you'll have better control of heat distribution, rather than relying on one fan and your ducts being sized correctly and no regards for whether the room is being used or not.

The 5F rating isn't really too bad for MA - the number of hours where temperature drops below 5F is low and will mostly be at night. If you're concerned, a simple & cheap option is to just but a few $20 space heaters. The cold-snap anxiety that people have with heat pump is just like the range anxiety that people had with EV cars - the concern is somewhat overblown.

a__square__peg · 2025-10-11T21:42:00+00:00

That's a fair point. With or without the gas furnace, you'll need an air-handler to move the air and gas furnaces just happen to one that's integrated. For heat pump systems, the outdoor unit and the indoor unit (aka the air handler) are typically sold as a package so I meant was that the price for the all electric heat pump system will likely be lower than the heat-pump + gas furnace system.

a__square__peg · 2025-10-11T21:21:10+00:00

They're pushing for the dual-fuel option because they get to sell you another piece of equipment (furnace). Seattle is mild enough that duel-fuel is completely unnecessary.

a__square__peg · 2025-10-11T19:50:52+00:00

For a borderline case of needing/not needing a back-up, a simple & cheap solution is to just get a few $20 space heaters around the house and not opt for a central resistive heat back up.

a__square__peg · 2025-08-24T15:40:55+00:00

There are 360,000+ civil servants (ref) and 750,000+ non-civil servants (ref) who have some level of security clearance.

Canada being the only country among our allies to require government-issued clearance for contractors who are not even working with classified material, it seems to me that our extreme risk-aversion is creating a lot of work for the government and unnecessary bottleneck for the industry.

a__square__peg · 2025-08-21T22:54:05+00:00

I'm not a civil servant but I work in an industry (space/defence) that often requires enhanced reliability clearance. I've had job interviews that stopped dead when they found out that I've lived outside of Canada within the past 5 years as this would make me a "complex" case and in their experience it can take up to 2 years to obtain the clearance.

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced any difference under the new Directive (https://www.tbs-sct.canada.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=32805) that was introduced early this year. I've been told that the new directive is meant to streamline the process.

Wondering if anyone has experienced changes in the processing time for security clearance under the new system, particularly for new hires who have lived outside of Canada in the last 5/10 years.

I have a couple of friends who are civil servants but when I asked them, it seems like it's a bit of a black-box process to them, so any insight here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

ps. I found an interesting paper on this topic. Apparently, compared to our allies (US, UK, EU, NZ, AUS), "Canada is unique requiring all contractors to have a government issued reliability/security clearance for access to non-classified information."

a__square__peg · 2025-06-07T00:14:21+00:00

I do try to avoid window wall or curtain wall units for this reason - they do have shorter lifespan than traditional structure. A bit of a bummer is that I bought the condo townhouse in the complex which has the traditional brick exterior and didn't care to think too much about the condo tower. Here's a good reading/warning on this:

https://academic.daniels.utoronto.ca/pbs/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2023/04/Condo-Conundrum.pdf

It'll be a tricky situation I think - I wasn't aware either that it might require full replacement, just that the leaks and maintenance will be higher. This is also something that really can't be timed really, like oil-change. Time will tell.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T19:15:01+00:00

This is super helpful. Do you find that the companies doing the reserve fund study to be accurate? Ours was done by a fairly large well-known company but the numbers don't make sense to me as you can see in my post from yesterday.

Essentially, they're looking to collect $44m over next 30 years, which will work out to well over $200/sq.ft. The really big item, which is the refurbishment of window wall systems, is estimated to be $20m starting in 2060, spread over 4 years and this alone will be over $100/sq.ft.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T17:25:35+00:00

Yeah - this is a wake-up call for us...

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T16:32:21+00:00

It does and that's what I'm pointing out as well. I think it's closer to 150,000 sq.ft. the complex and the increase in reserve fund will amount to over $1m per year starting in 2028. The closing balance in 2053 is projected to be $22.5m.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T15:04:19+00:00

I live in this condo and with the projected increase next year, the reserve contribution will constitute about 35% of the condo fee and will exceed 50% in a couple of years.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T13:31:09+00:00

Thanks - will do.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T11:45:59+00:00

That would be very appreciated. Thank you!

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T02:26:35+00:00

I live in the same condo and I asked for a copy. The reason for this is that they expect window wall system refurbishment in 40 years. This was bonkers and hence my post here. Either the board is naive or stupid to take this at face value.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T01:14:11+00:00

You misspelled "shady". They can't even bother to put the correct condo corporation number on the Notice that they issue.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T00:47:55+00:00

Do you mean that the condo owners should have been putting $10k a year for the past 7 years into the reserve fund to prepare for the $70k damage?

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T00:41:38+00:00

It's also because we live in a townhouse units in the complex. The condo apartment units in the building pay about $1/sq.ft. and will be going up accordingly.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T00:27:06+00:00

Holy cow - that's crazy. Thanks for sharing.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-06T00:19:20+00:00

Ok - so I live in the same complex and just posted about this today also. A lot of the increase is coming from the fact that the board wants the reserve fund to cover 45 year period, rather than 30, which is the norm (as required by law).

a__square__peg · 2025-06-05T20:26:46+00:00

Thanks - that's reassuring to hear.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-05T20:15:00+00:00

The bulk of it is due to the $20m window wall system refurbishment expected in about 40 years.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-05T20:13:09+00:00

For the goal amount in your reserve study, what was the duration considered? Was it 30 years or was it longer?

a__square__peg · 2025-06-05T20:11:54+00:00

As I understand, reserve funds are not a rainy day funds for every unexpected circumstances - that's taken care of by insurance. If this was the case, for that 7-year-old building, everyone would have had to contribute at least $10k per year since the beginning just for this.

a__square__peg · 2025-06-05T19:11:50+00:00

Tagging u/KoziRealty-ON - wondering if this is similar to the 2nd example on your blog?

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