Generally maintenance fees cover anything on the condo property outside the front door of your condo suite. Every building is different and the services you get for maintenance can vary dramatically. Some buildings have valet and concierge included in the fees and other building don't have any services in the lobby at all. Maintenance fees often cover, garbage removal, parking/underground maintenance, landscaping, window cleaning etc. Some older buildings will sometimes have hydro or even cable included in the maintenance fees. As a result, the maintenance fees tend to be much higher in a building with lots of services, as well, the number of suites in the building will also have an impact on the distribution of expenses and overall maintenance fees. The condo board will help to maintain control of expenses and make decisions on necessary and unecessary costs where possible. The building management also has to collect for the reserve fund (which is held in trust to be used for any large repairs or expenses in the buiding over all). If any of such expenses were to exceed the amount of the reserve fund, a special assessment would be done and residents could be looking at a maintenance fee increase to cover extraordinary costs in this respect. A buildings status certificate will detail what is covered in your maintenance fees. As a condo buyer you should analyze the status certificate so that you can determine if the maintenance fees are reasonable and will fit into your budget, and whether or not there are any pending 'special assessments'. In this context 'special' usually doesn't mean 'good'. When buying a new construction condo a status certificate will not necessarily be available upon purchase until the building is up and running so maintenance fees can be difficult to assess. You will be provided with condo documents at the pre-construction stage that will give you predicted financials in the building. This is where it becomes crucial that you know the legitimacy and quality of the builder so there are no huge maintenance fee surprises after you have taken possession of your new condo.

Contact me for more details, I am always happy to answer questions in this regard.