"Do I need my board's permission to fix this?" has a different answer depending on which kind of Richmond Hill property you own — and it isn't just tower vs. townhome. Richmond Hill's townhome market itself splits into three real, legally distinct ownership types — freehold, condominium townhouse, and Parcel of Tied Land (POTL) — and each one puts a different amount of your building's exterior under a board's control. Get the type wrong and you either book a repair you never had authority to approve, or spend weeks on paperwork for a job that never needed it.
A high-rise tower: almost everything exterior is common element
In a standard condominium corporation — the kind that governs a Yonge-corridor tower — the building envelope, balconies, and exterior walls are common elements, some held as exclusive-use common elements for the unit they serve. Under Section 98 of Ontario's Condominium Act, 1998, an owner can't touch a common element without the board's approval. The board isn't obligated to say yes, and it has broad discretion — but it has to weigh whether the change would detract from the building's appearance, affect other units, increase corporation expenses, or compromise structural integrity, and it has to act reasonably in doing so. Say yes, and the result is a written Section 98 agreement, registered against title to your unit, spelling out who owns the alteration and who's responsible for repairing, maintaining, and insuring it going forward — a document that binds you and every future owner of the unit, not just you.
A condo townhouse: same rules, different building
Not every Richmond Hill townhome is freehold. A standard condominium townhouse complex is still governed by the Condominium Act the same way a tower is — the corporation typically owns the building envelope (exterior walls, roof, sometimes windows and doors) even though each unit looks like its own rowhouse. Repainting a front door a different colour, replacing an exterior window, or adding a small addition to a patio still runs through the same Section 98 process as a tower balcony — board approval first, a registered agreement second. The townhouse form factor doesn't exempt it; only the ownership structure underneath does.
A POTL townhome: often no board approval at all for your own exterior
Much of Richmond Hill's newer townhome stock is built as a Common Elements Condominium Corporation (CECC), where each home is a Parcel of Tied Land (POTL) — you hold full freehold title to your house and the land under it, and the condominium corporation exists only to manage the shared infrastructure around it: private roads, visitor parking, sometimes a community amenity area. Because you own your unit in fee simple rather than the corporation owning your building envelope, most exterior work on the home itself — a door, a window, siding, a deck — isn't a common-element alteration at all, and doesn't need board approval. That said, some CECC developments do fold shared features like fencing or coordinated roofing into the common elements they manage, so it isn't a blanket rule — check your specific corporation's declaration before assuming a job is yours to book without asking, the same caution the balcony and plumbing guides below give for a tower's grey areas.
A true freehold townhome: no board, but possibly a covenant on title
Some older Richmond Hill townhome rows are fully freehold with no condominium corporation attached at all — no board, no monthly common-element fee, no Section 98 process to navigate. That doesn't always mean total freedom, though: some subdivisions were built with restrictive covenants registered on title by the original developer, limiting things like fence height, exterior paint colour, or roofing material to keep a uniform streetscape. A registered covenant runs with the land and binds every future owner, but it's a civil, deed-based restriction — not a board you call for a work order, and not something a property manager enforces day to day.
What actually determines which one you're in
You can't tell which category applies from the outside — a POTL townhome and a condo townhouse can look identical from the street. The document that settles it is your declaration (and, for a POTL, whether you additionally hold status certificate documents for a Common Elements Condominium rather than a standard condominium). If you're not sure, your property management company or the corporation's status certificate will say plainly whether the corporation includes units or only common elements — that single detail tells you whether a repair on your own home needs sign-off or not.
What the approval process itself involves, when it applies
Where Section 98 does apply — a tower balcony or a condo townhouse exterior — expect roughly this sequence: a written request to the board describing the work, board review against the statutory factors above (sometimes with an engineer's opinion required for anything touching structure), and, if approved, a Section 98 agreement drafted and registered against your unit's title before work starts. The corporation is entitled to require you to cover its reasonable costs of that process, including its legal fees for preparing and registering the agreement — exact amounts vary by corporation and by how much legal review the specific change needs, so ask for a cost estimate in writing before you commit, rather than assuming a flat fee.
Talk to the board first
"It's a townhome, so I don't need approval" and "it's a condo, so I definitely need approval" are both wrong often enough to be expensive mistakes in Richmond Hill specifically, because the city genuinely has all three ownership types in active use. Before booking anyone for exterior or balcony work, find out which one your property actually is — freehold, condo townhouse, or POTL — and if there's any doubt, ask property management or check your declaration first. It's a five-minute call that avoids either an unauthorized-alteration order or a needless few weeks waiting on paperwork you never actually needed.
Related reading
- More home repair guides for Richmond Hill
- Balcony Door and Railing Repair in a Richmond Hill High-Rise
- In-Suite Plumbing Repairs in a Richmond Hill High-Rise
- Small Jobs in the Oak Ridges Moraine: What Actually Needs Approval
- Pre-Listing Small Repair Punch List in Richmond Hill
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