ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concept of ‘legal avoidance’ to consider the strategies that condo developers employ to undermine the efficacy of the turnover provisions in condo legislation. It examines how developer control of condo buildings ‘rolls over’, in the sense of lingering after this legally mandated transfer point, and in the sense of surmounting the interests of residents. The chapter shows how developers use, manipulate, and avoid law and regulation to exert influence over the governance of condo spaces and residents. It reviews literature about legal avoidance, as well as literature about condo development and its relationship with condo governance. The chapter discusses the methods and procedures used to study the influence of condo developers on condo governance through legal avoidance. It focuses on analysis of extensive qualitative data from New York State and Ontario and describes the developer turnover requirement whereby owners ostensibly take control of condo corporation functions.
