The first full study is due within a year of registration; after that, updates alternate at least every three years.
Short answer
A condo corporation must complete a full class 1 study “within the first year following the registration of the declaration and description.” After that, “the class 3 and class 2 studies are done on an alternating basis at least every three years,” and the board has to act on each one within fixed windows once it’s received.
Class 1 is the comprehensive baseline study, required in year one of the corporation’s life. From there, classes 2 and 3 (lighter update tiers, not repeats of the full study) alternate on a minimum three-year cycle. Newly registered corporations sometimes miss the class 1 deadline because they’re tracking “building age” instead of “declaration registration date” — the clock runs from registration, not from when construction finished or residents moved in.
The financial analysis must include “a recommended funding plan projected over a period of at least 30 consecutive years,” citing s. 32 of O. Reg. 48/01. That long horizon is the point: a reserve fund study isn’t a snapshot of current repair costs, it’s a forecast of when major building components (roof, elevators, garage membrane) will need replacing decades out, and whether current contributions are on pace to fund them.
Once the board receives the study, it must review it within 120 days and propose a funding plan, citing ss. 94(8) and 37(1) of the Condo Act and s. 30(2) of O. Reg. 48/01. If a study arrives March 1, the review deadline is June 29. Once the board proposes a plan, owners get a notice “within 15 days” — a specific statutory form, not a general email update — summarizing the study, the proposed plan, and any point where the plan diverges from the study’s recommendation. The fund then has to be adequate “by the fiscal year after the study was completed,” which is a tighter deadline than boards often expect when they see “30-year projection” and assume everything is long-term.
An underfunded reserve discovered late in the cycle usually means a special assessment, and the corporation’s liens-for-unpaid-fees exposure (see when can we lien for unpaid common expenses) tends to spike in the months after a large special assessment hits owners who weren’t budgeting for it. Treating the 120-day review and 15-day notice as hard deadlines, not aspirational ones, is what keeps a funding gap from turning into a collections problem a year later. It also directly affects what a status certificate says about the state of the reserve fund when a unit resells mid-cycle.
A 30-minute call is enough to check your corporation's cycle against the statutory clocks.
