P.C. writes:

Dear Paul: The only way to obtain copies of our condo documents is to buy them from management for $30.00 each. Is this a reasonable fee?

Paul replies:

Dear P.C.: Good question. I believe that condo boards should make condo documents available to unit owners on a private website, online, at no charge. The owner could have the document(s) copied onto a flash drive. If someone needs a hard copy, they can print it themselves. If someone does not have access to a computer, the board can make copies available for consultation in a common room, if you have one. Failing the above, the board secretary could keep a hard copy in a binder for consultation purposes.

If someone requests a hard copy, then what would be a reasonable fee?  Staples to photocopy a thirty-page document Staples would charge $0.12 per page, or $3.60 plus tax (GST 5% MB PST 7%) totalling $4.03. If management charged $0.25 per page, I think that this is still reasonable. However, at $30.00 for the document in this example, this would mean $1.00 per page. In my view, this should be considered unacceptable for documents owned by the corporation. I would ask for justification. After all, a condo corporation is supposed to be a not-for-profit organization.