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Your board has voted, so switching property management companies is now a logistics problem rather than a decision. A clean changeover runs on three clocks. Your agreement sets the notice you owe. The outgoing licensee has 15 days after the contract ends to return your records. You have 30 days from the effective date to tell the owners and to file the change.
The order you work in matters more than the speed. What the corporation hands over is custody of the minute book, the bank file, the owner register, and administrator rights to every system your property management services run on. Move those in the right sequence and most owners never notice the change.
Before You Give Notice, Line Up the Replacement
Notice starts a countdown the board cannot pause. Everything that has to be true on day one should be true before the letter goes out: a signed agreement with the incoming firm, two verified licences, and a recorded board decision.
Sign the New Agreement First, Then Start the Clock
Line up the replacement before you give notice. Boards that give notice first and shop second run the countdown against themselves, and 60 days is a short runway for a decision this size. Most boards gather proposals from other management providers well before they vote to terminate. Working out how to pick a property management company is a separate exercise with its own criteria, and everything below assumes you have already done it.
Check Both Licences Before the Board Signs
Nobody can provide condominium management services in Ontario without a licence, and boards are expected to confirm that the firms and people they hire hold the right one. Check two, not one: the company’s provider licence, and the licence of the individual manager assigned to your building. The CMRAO public registry shows the licence number and expiry, any conditions on the licence, and any disciplinary or offence history.
Individual licences come in two classes: a limited licence is entry level, carries conditions and works under a general licensee’s supervision, while a general licence requires experience and further education.
Vote at a Proper Meeting and Minute It
Condo business belongs at a board meeting with quorum, and adequate minutes must be taken. That minute is what proves the notice was authorized if the outgoing firm disputes it. Overseeing the corporation’s affairs is what a condo board of directors is responsible for, and that duty cannot be handed to a manager.
Notice: Your Agreement Sets the Clock
The notice you owe is the notice your own agreement says you owe. Put the signed agreement on the table before anyone counts days, and read the termination clause and the delivery clause together.
The 60 Days Most Ontario Agreements Require
Most Ontario condo management agreements are written so either side can end them at any time, without cause, on at least 60 days written notice that names the termination date. The Condominium Authority of Ontario describes that as the typical arrangement, not as a floor the legislation sets. Most contracts run a three-year term and can still be ended mid-term with proper notice, so a board does not have to wait for expiry. Read your own agreement, because yours is the one that governs.
What a Proper Notice Letter Contains and How It Is Delivered
The letter names the termination date, references the board’s resolution, and goes out by the delivery method and to the address the agreement specifies. Send it from the board rather than from one director acting alone, and keep proof of delivery.
Every licensee providing services to a corporation must have a written contract governing them, so a board that cannot find its agreement has just found its first problem. Check what the outgoing manager may charge on the way out before the letter goes: your contract sets those costs, not any published rate.
Paying Out the Notice Period Instead of Working It
You do not have to make the incumbent work the notice period. The board may make payment in lieu of notice for all or part of it, and that is a legitimate operational choice rather than an admission of conflict. A manager working out 60 days he did not choose is a real risk to service levels. The trade-off is that the corporation absorbs those last weeks itself.
If Your Turnover Meeting Was Less Than 12 Months Ago
A newer corporation has a second route. If your turnover meeting was less than 12 months ago, a new owner-controlled board can end most of the contracts the developer signed on the corporation’s behalf, and the window runs 12 months from that meeting. That right has its own rules, so take legal advice before you use it.
Use the Notice Period to Onboard the Incoming Manager
The notice period is the only stretch when both firms are available to you at once.
Walk the site with the outgoing and incoming managers together before the effective date. Provision the incoming firm’s access to the building’s systems, the portal and the access control database while someone is still there to grant it. Agree opening balances so the new manager does not start from a number nobody has checked. Introduce the incoming manager to the superintendent, the concierge and the main contractors.
Settle who answers the phone, the door and the after-hours line on day one, and where owners send requests that week. The effective date is when unresolved details become emergencies. Resolve them while both firms are still in the room.
Records: What Comes Back, and by When
The records are the corporation’s, and the manager has only been holding them. That single fact turns the handover from a favour into a duty with a deadline attached. Boards that ask nicely for their own minute book have already conceded the point.
15 Days for Your Records, 30 Days for What Is Not Written Yet
When the contract ends, the outgoing licensee must transfer the corporation’s documents and records, and Ontario’s regulation sets that deadline at no later than 15 days after termination. Anything the contract required the manager to create that does not yet exist on the last day, such as final minutes and closing statements, must be created and transferred within 30 days.
Hold the two deadlines as one model: 15 days for what exists, 30 days for what still has to be written. That 30-day duty attaches only to records the contract required the manager to create.
The Handover List Your Board Sends in Advance
The list a well-run board sends is not a legal schedule, so an omission from it is an oversight and not permission to leave anything behind. Send it in writing before the effective date, with one named director owning it and a date beside every item. Each entry is a document or asset to receive.
- Governance: minute book and corporate seal, declaration, by-laws and rules
- Owners: owner and mortgagee registers, unit ledgers, arrears and lien files
- Money: financial records and bank statements, budgets, audit files, the reserve fund study, and the pre-authorized debit file for common expense contributions
- Risk and building: insurance policy and claims history, vendor contracts and service logs, drawings, manuals and warranty files, and employment and payroll files for on-site staff the corporation employs
- Access: keys, fobs, the access control database, and administrator rights to the building’s portal
A corporation’s financial records are generally kept for seven years, so a handover that produces one year of statements is not a complete handover.
What the Outgoing Firm Keeps, and What It May Do With It
The outgoing firm may keep copies where it needs them for purposes relating to the contract. So the corporation gets its records back and the old firm holds duplicates, not originals. Those copies have to be kept secure, and they may only be used or disclosed in narrow circumstances: fulfilling or proving the contract, complying with the regulator, or with the consent of the person the information is about.
If the Records Do Not Arrive
Most handovers land on time. When one does not, escalate in order.
- Start with the rule. A licensee may not hold back records it is required to transfer as a way of pressuring a client into meeting contractual obligations. A fee dispute is not a reason to sit on the minute book.
- Put the demand in writing. Send the outstanding list and a date, addressed to the firm rather than to the individual manager.
- Take it to the registrar. Complaints about a licensee go to the registrar, who can mediate or resolve the complaint, issue a written warning, require further education, add conditions to a licence, suspend or revoke it, refuse to renew it, or refer the matter to the discipline committee.
- Hand it to your lawyer. If the records still have not arrived, this is the point where the corporation’s counsel takes it over.
The Changeover Timeline: Three Clocks
Three clocks govern a changeover, and they overlap rather than queue up politely. Each starts on a different trigger.
| Clock | How long | Starts on | What it covers |
| Notice to your management company | 60 days in most Ontario agreements | The day your written notice is delivered | Your management agreement sets this number, so read yours before you count days |
| Records transfer | 15 days, plus 30 days for records that still have to be created | The day the contract ends | The outgoing licensee returns the corporation’s documents and records |
| Owner notice and the CAO filing | 30 days each | The effective date of the change | An information certificate update to owners, and a notice of change filed with the Condominium Authority of Ontario |
Build one countdown backwards from the effective date and put a name beside every item on it. Watch the fiscal year: a change two weeks before year end makes the audit span two managers and two sets of books, which moving the effective date avoids. The last clocks are the ones that get missed, because by then the new manager is in the building and the handover feels finished.
The first weeks set the tone, and the board and management relationship you build in that window is the one you will live with for years.
The Effective Date: Notices, Filings, and Accounts
Two 30-day clocks start on the effective date, one facing the owners and one facing the regulator, and the money moves in the same week. All of it gets missed because each firm assumes the other is handling it.
Owners Get Written Notice Within 30 Days
A change of condominium management provider or manager triggers an information certificate update, and it goes out to owners within 30 days of the change. The update states the new provider or manager, the corporation’s address for service, the address for service of the directors and officers, and any change in the directors or officers themselves. That is how owners learn the building has a new manager.
Two related certificates keep running while attention is elsewhere: the periodic information certificate twice a fiscal year, within 60 days of the end of the first and third quarters, and a new owner’s certificate within 30 days of their written notice.
File the Change With the Condominium Authority of Ontario Within 30 Days
The corporation files a notice of change within 30 days of the information changing, and the returns filed with the Authority carry board member and condo manager details. The annual return is separate: it is filed between 1 January and 31 March, with a $200 late fee for each return filed after the deadline. A changeover in the first quarter is exactly when that one gets dropped, because the outgoing firm assumes the incoming firm filed it.
The Money Moves Before the Records Do
Fix a date for the final reconciliation and closing statements from the outgoing manager, and name the director who chases them. Agree who pays the invoices that land in the gap week. Confirm the pre-authorized debit run for common expense contributions before it is due, because a missed collection cycle costs the corporation twice. Change signing authority at the bank by board resolution, confirm it in writing, and account for the cheque stock.
If your agreement required the outgoing manager to produce them, closing statements sit among the records that must be created and transferred on that same 30-day tail.
Transfer the Insurer, Utility and Portal Accounts to the New Manager
Some relationships belong to the corporation and travel with it: the contact of record with your insurer, the utility accounts, administrator rights to the building’s portal, and the access control database. Move each one to the incoming firm on the board’s own schedule during the notice period, and get written confirmation that the outgoing firm’s access has been revoked.
What Does Not Pause During a Changeover
The corporation’s duties do not pause for a changeover. It is a legal person with its own obligations, and none of them care which firm is holding the file this month. Three catch boards out most often.
Status Certificate Requests Still Run on a 10-Day Clock
Anyone can request a status certificate, and the corporation has 10 days to respond and can charge up to $100 including all applicable taxes, whoever is managing the building that week. A status certificate request that lands in the gap between two firms is the one that gets missed, so name the person responsible for answering during the changeover.
Service Contracts and the Elevator Licence: Check Who Is Named
Check the named party on every vendor agreement. Most belong to the corporation and were signed by the manager as agent, so they need a new contact of record and a transferred file, not a new signature. Elevator, cleaning, landscaping, security, HVAC and waste agreements are the usual list. Some do name the management company or carry a change-of-manager clause, so read them.
The elevating device is licensed to the corporation. Renewals through the regulator’s portal, ownership and contact updates, incident reporting, using a registered contractor for alterations and keeping the log book all stay with the corporation, and they land on the corporation if they are missed.
Owner Records Requests and Board Business Do Not Stop
An owner who asks for the corporation’s records during the changeover is still owed a response on the normal footing, and the manager holding those records is required to provide owner access in line with the legislation. Board business does not pause either. Decisions still have to be made at a meeting with quorum and minuted, including the several the handover itself generates.
Planning a Changeover in the GTA
A handover is the clearest test of whether a management company runs on process or on personality, so ask the incoming firm to show you its written handover process before you sign. Our team has spent more than 15 years managing residential and commercial condominium properties across the GTA, from condominiums and co-ops to office buildings and community centres, and we hold CMRAO condominium management licensing. Professional property management should look the same in the first 60 days as it does in year three.
If your board has voted and the calendar is already running, talk to our team about your transition and we will map the three clocks against your own agreement.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Most condo management contracts run a three-year term, and most can be ended at any time with the notice the agreement requires. Check the termination clause first, then count the notice period backwards from the date you want the new firm to start.
The notice your agreement says. In most Ontario condo management agreements that is at least 60 days in writing, from either side, without cause, naming the termination date. That number comes from the contract, not from the legislation, so read your own agreement before you count days.
15 days after the contract ends for records that already exist. For records the contract required them to create that were not written by the last day, such as final minutes, the deadline is 30 days. Both clocks run from termination, not from the date you ask.
No. A licensee may not hold back records it is required to transfer as a way of pressuring the client into meeting contractual obligations. Put the outstanding list in writing with a date. If it is ignored, complaints about a licensee go to the registrar, who can warn, add conditions, suspend or revoke a licence.
This is the board’s decision. Owners elect the directors, the directors decide who manages the property, and owners receive written notice of the change within 30 days. Boards that explain the change early spend less time answering the same question later.
A notice of change to the Condominium Authority of Ontario within 30 days, and an information certificate update to owners within 30 days. The annual return between 1 January and 31 March still belongs to the corporation, whoever is managing the building, so confirm in writing which firm is filing it.
Find out who actually employs them before the effective date. If they are employed by the outgoing management company rather than by the corporation, that is a question for your lawyer well before the final week.