A Mississauga couple is in the middle of a war of words with the board of directors of their townhouse complex — which a handful of residents say is imposing unnecessarily strict new rules on the complex’s roughly 140 owners.

Janet Kitson said her problems began in 2022, when new members joined the board of directors at 3050 Orleans Road in the Winston Churchill Boulevard and Dundas Street area.

This board has issued an updated set of regulations that residents must follow – standard procedure for most condos and townhouse complexes. But on Orleans Road, this list has increased from around thirty in 2010, when the list was last updated, to more than 70 in 2022.

The new list includes regulations prohibiting people from painting their fences, residents say, as well as limiting the number of pets they can own and banning certain plants from people’s yards.

“It’s frustrating. It’s stressful,” Kitson said. “There need to be rules so that there is no anarchy, (but) it’s almost like dog eat dog.”

Shortly after the board distributed the new list to owners, Kitson complained to her neighbors and wrote a petition asking that the new rules be reviewed by members of the complex. In response, she says, the council issued another new set of rules in 2023, this one including a rule banning gazebos – which she’s had in her garden for 20 years, without complaint.

“It’s almost like we’re being targeted,” said Kitson, who has lived in the house with her partner Joe Ferretti of 34 years.

“I want them to leave me alone.”

The gazebo ban list was approved in a member vote in January 2024.

Of 141 owners at the complex, 55 took part in the vote, according to a letter from Malvern Condominium Property Management to owners.

Kitson said the battles between her and her allies, as well as the board and its supporters, have divided the complex and shattered at least one of its friendships.

“In the last couple of years, it’s no longer a community,” she said.

“Everyone looks at everyone.”

Mona Usajewicz, one of the Orleans Road board members, told CBC Toronto the board would not comment and directed her inquiries to Chris Poland, vice-president of Malvern.

New rules legally adopted, says Malvern director

Poland stressed in a statement to CBC Toronto that the new rules were adopted by a majority of owners at the January meeting, as required by the province’s Condominium Act, and that the board is enforcing these rules now.

Audrey Loeb, a condo law expert with law firm Shibley Righton, said there are lessons to be learned from the complaints filed by Orleans Road residents.

Potential buyers should be aware that when moving into a townhouse complex or condo, both of which are governed in Ontario by the Condominium Act, individual tastes may be overshadowed by broader community interests.

“What it really means is that if you want to live in a community, you have to understand that you will be governed by the decisions of the majority,” she said. “You might not like it, but that’s what condo living is all about, and that’s really the takeaway.”

Loeb said condo boards don’t have carte blanche to write whatever rules they want.

She said the rules must be “reasonable” and that if a resident believes that this limit is crossed, they can file their complaint with the Condominium Authority Tribunal (CAT) or go directly to the Superior Court of Ontario.

“And if the CAT, or the court, finds that it’s reasonable, you’re stuck with that,” Loeb said.

Kitson recently received a letter from the commission’s attorney, insisting that she remove the gazebo, which she says she is not doing. She says it’s been on her back patio for decades and should be allowed to stay there — a position Loeb agrees with.

She said a condominium board’s rules cannot impose new restrictions on existing amenities, like kiosks.

“Even if there had been (a rule banning a particular piece of equipment) in place, if it hadn’t been enforced for 25 years, I doubt a court would order it removed now,” she said.

Landlords criticize council enforcement

The most sensible solution, she said, would be for the resort board to allow the overlook to remain, provided it is removed when Kitson is sold.

Other owners at the complex told CBC Toronto they recognize some of the new rules are harsh and also oppose other decisions made by council regarding the complex’s properties.

Georgena Bowles, who has lived in the complex for more than 30 years, said she is concerned about the arbitrariness with which some board decisions are being enforced.

“I don’t think they should force us to do certain things they want,” she said.

For example, she says the council recently installed a sprinkler outside her house and tapped into her water supply to power it. She said she had no choice in the matter. “They say they’ll reimburse me for the water. I have to pay for it first.”

In addition, the council “arbitrarily” had the doors of his garage and those of his neighbors painted.

“We should have voted on this,” Bowles said. “They tell us what we can do and what we can’t do.”

Loeb points out that a resident who feels that a particular rule is too onerous also has the power under the Condominium Act to call a meeting and have that rule rewritten, or even repealed, provided that he has a majority of owners on his side.

But the main thing? Loeb suggests new condo or townhouse owners do their homework before moving in.

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“There are rules, there are provisions that can restrict what you can and can’t do and you have to follow them,” Loeb said.

“You get what’s called a status certificate and all these documents (building regulations or complex) are attached,” she said. “But people don’t read them because they’re too big. That’s the problem.”

Overall, Loeb said, in her experience, she doesn’t find that boards adopt unreasonable rules very often.