The consultant will minimize the cost of legal fees by acting as the project manager, organizing the process, reviewing draft documents, asking questions, providing step-by-step guidance and support from start to finish, and preparing a package for the lawyer to write the set of bylaws.

The consultant will recommend options for individual bylaws, suggest additional bylaws that may be missing in your current bylaws, help you build bylaws that Unit Owners can easily understand, and future-proof the bylaws where you can, so you can avoid costly changes when the Condominium Property Act is updated.

The legislation governing condominium property law changes regularly, so lawyers and consultants continually work to stay up-to-date with these changes.

Having an experienced condominium lawyer working on your bylaws, along with an experienced condominium consultant, will give you a strong team to support building bylaws that will work best for your corporation.

Consultants do not typically write condominium corporation bylaws because they are not legally trained. It is highly recommended to have a lawyer do this, someone experienced in condominium law, so the bylaws will withstand a legal challenge.

Bylaws written by lawyers are the intellectual property of the lawyers who write them, and they can not be used without their permission or compensation.

The language used in today’s current bylaws has changed from what was used years ago, and most bylaws written years ago would need to be updated with current language. Ongoing case law informs lawyers about which language is effective and which is not, and they continually update the language in their bylaws to keep them current.

When bylaws are created today, all sections work together to cover all the requirements of a comprehensive set of bylaws. It would require reviewing and reorganizing all the bylaws in any set of old bylaws to ensure that all areas are covered. This can be costly if this is done for a complete set of older bylaws.

Lawyers create their own templates that cover all areas required to update a set of bylaws. They would typically not update an old set of bylaws because the time and expense would far exceed the cost of creating a modern and comprehensive set of new bylaws from their own vetted templates.

The costs of using a lawyer along with a consultant will pay for themselves the first time you need to go to court. One case that is required to be brought to court will cost more than the additional cost of using a lawyer to write your bylaws in the first place. The costs of not having an effective tool (your bylaws) to manage your property efficiently and with minimal effort cannot be understated.

Do yourself a favour and follow this advice; you will not be sorry you did.