Field notes from a condo corp treasurer - Summer 2025

Article from Volume 12, Issue Number 3, 2025

Field notes from a condo corp treasurer - Summer 2025

By Alan Forbes | Other articles by Alan Forbes | Regular Column

So you attended your Annual General Meeting and were “voluntold” to join the board. Perhaps you just finished a term as a director and because nobody else stepped forward, you consented to run for re-election. When you were elected (or re-elected) you ended up as treasurer or remained in the role because nobody else wanted to do it — or you don’t trust anybody else to do it. Like me, you probably are not an accountant. If so, you sometimes feel lost, overwhelmed or unsure about how to provide value to your condo corporation and the owners.

Here are some lessons learned from someone in the same situation. In case you missed my earlier articles in this series, here is a link to them.

For context, my condo corporation has 21 townhouses, with all unit owners responsible for their own electricity bills, while the corporation is responsible for water bills. Each unit has electric heat (forced air furnace) and natural gas is not available on the property.

Property taxes, fees and rebates

In my article in the spring edition of the newsletter, I discussed how the City of Winnipeg’s sewer and water rate increases and the implementation of the new waste management fee affected our condo corporation’s budget for the year. The net effect was to increase our total expenses for the year by 3.3 per cent. The condo corporation pays both bills, which equate to $144 per unit.

Now that the property tax bills have arrived, I can say that the above increases to our expenses were partially offset by savings on our property tax bills. Although our municipal taxes increased by 7 per cent and our school taxes increased by 14.8 per cent (and assessed value increased by 10.6 per cent), the $1,500 provincial Home Affordability Tax Credit resulted in a net decrease of $112, almost offsetting the $144 amount from above. Overall, my personal costs increased by only $32, so I’m not going to complain.

Cost comparison — audit versus review engagement

We had been doing review engagements for the past few years but decided to do a full audit for our 2024 fiscal year. An audit provides a higher level of assurance but for an increased fee. How much of an increased fee, do you ask?

Based on the trend from earlier years, we paid about 11 per cent more (about $356) for the audit than if we had just done another review. From my reading of the auditor’s report, the primary difference is the opinion.

For a review engagement, the opinion is:

Based on our review, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the financial statements do not present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position….

Whereas for an audit, the opinion is:

In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position….

Was it worth doing an audit? You tell me — literally; email me at cci.mb.news@gmail.com. At our AGM I had the auditor briefly explain to our owners the difference in rigour between a review engagement and an audit. Being a lay person, I like the rigour of the audit better. As to what we do for our next fiscal year, I will discuss it with the other directors at an upcoming board meeting.

Understanding financial statements

If you or other directors have difficulty understanding your annual financial statements and the auditor’s report, read the CPA guide to non-profit organization financial statements, a copy of which is available on the CCI Manitoba website. Here is a link.

Alan Forbes lives in a condo and is the treasurer for his condo corporation even though he is not an accountant. He also is a director of CCI Manitoba and is its vice-president.

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