NSCC72 has recently provided a 106-page Building Deficiency Review of alleged deficiencies in the condominium following inspections in 2025.
Common sense would dictate that any allegations of these deficiencies should have been made in 2017 or sometime closely thereafter. These experts should have been commissioned many years before now, and not 9 years after the lawsuit was commenced.
With the passage of time, it is generally recognized that wear and tear and a lack of maintenance take their toll. Whatever these new experts believe was never picked up in the several reviews required under The Condominium Act by Pitchler Engineering, nor indeed in the performance audit of 2015.
The experts who were hired, no doubt at great cost, have come up with some amazing findings about the Mansions on George condominium . This essentially means that the building and its sub pertinences should not be occupied at this time.
Some of the recommendations in the finalized review report dated December 12, 2025, are for immediate attention, and to our knowledge, this has not happened.
Overall, the experts suggest that the cost to renew, remediate, restore, (etc.) amounts to $11,763,546 before HST of $1,529,261 which leaves a total cost of NSCC72 of $13,292,807.
It is our belief that these numbers are pure speculation, these monies are not going to be spent, that this report is simply meant to enflame the situation, and the Court.
The major portion of the Mansions on George condominium (NSCC72) was the Thomas Gillbard School built in 1906, and the project was a reconstruction and modernization of a 100-year-old historic architectural gem and governed by Cobourg’s Heritage rules and By-laws.
Under the Condominium Act the renovation was known as a “Conversion” and could not be covered under Tarion regulations at the time.
For perspective, none of the alleged deficiencies that were raised in the original 2017 claim, or the 2022 amended statement of claim, reference items in individual suites. These were built to an extremely high standard.
This 2025 deficiency review is simply frivolous, vexatious, and egregious. The original 2017 statement of claim stated that the building was “uninhabitable”.
Units were originally sold from the mid $200,000 up to the mid $500,000 and overall, the total sales price for all of the units amounted to roughly $11,100,000, which is 6 % less than the alleged cost to rebuild Mansions on George Condominium.
Each original purchaser received and signed the Disclosure Statement of 1573454 wherein it gave notice that the condominium would not be covered by the then “Ontario New Home Warranty Plan Act” (“ONHWP”) Now known as Tarion. Therefore, each owner was fully aware that they would not be required to pay the Tarion premium and would be paying for any issues with the building.
In any event, Tarion warranty is only for SEVEN (7) years and had this applied to NSCC72 it would have expired in August 2018. Also, Tarion does not apply to wear & tear etc.
All subsequent purchasers have paid for and received a Status Certificate from the NSCC72 Management Company, which clearly states that NSCC72 and the units are not covered by the ONWHP/TARION warranty programme.
The $13,292,807 that is estimated by the NSCC72 experts will therefore have to be borne by the plaintiffs and not any of the defendants.
