In most Calgary condo complexes, the corporation pays — because the driveway, walkway or parking pad is common property, which means it belongs to all the owners together rather than to you. But there is a common and important exception: in a bare land condominium, the concrete on your own parcel is usually yours. And in either type, the bylaws can move the line.
So the honest answer to “who pays” is: it depends on two documents, and you can find out which side of the line your slab falls on in an afternoon. This page walks through how to do that, where the money comes from once responsibility is settled, and the one situation where an owner can be billed a large amount directly.
We are a division of Omega 2000, and a fair share of the calls we take are from owners and boards who are not sure which of them is supposed to be calling us. Sorting that out first saves everyone a wasted site visit.
First question: is the concrete yours, or everyone’s?
Alberta condo law divides a complex into a few categories, and every piece of concrete on the property sits in one of them.
Your unit is the part you own outright. Unless the bylaws say otherwise, the corporation is generally not responsible for repairs inside a unit — that is your appliances, your interior finishes, your fixtures.
Common property is, in plain terms, anything in the complex that is not inside the boundaries of a unit. It is jointly owned by all the owners, and the corporation has a duty under the Condominium Property Act to control, manage and administer it. In a typical apartment-style or attached townhouse complex, that covers the visitor parking, the sidewalks between buildings, the shared driveway and the entry steps.
Managed property is the category most owners have never heard of, and it matters here. It means any unit, or part of a unit, that the corporation is required to maintain, repair or replace under the bylaws. So a slab that technically sits inside your unit boundary can still be the corporation’s job if the bylaws put it there.
The practical takeaway: two documents decide this, and neither of them is your purchase agreement. They are the condominium plan — the survey document that shows exactly where unit boundaries fall — and the bylaws. Your property manager or board can send you both, and you are entitled to them.
Bare land versus conventional: the difference that decides most driveways
This is where Calgary owners most often guess wrong, because two complexes can look identical from the street and be structured completely differently.
| Conventional condominium | Bare land condominium | |
|---|---|---|
| What your unit is | Usually the building interior, with boundaries at walls, floors and ceilings | A parcel of land, with boundaries set by survey markers, that may or may not have a structure on it |
| Where the driveway usually falls | Common property | Inside your own parcel |
| Who usually repairs it | The corporation | The owner |
| Who can change that | The bylaws | The bylaws |
In a bare land condominium, the unit is the land itself, identified by reference to survey markers rather than by interior walls. Because the parcel is yours, owners in bare land complexes are usually responsible for landscaping and exterior repairs, which normally includes the driveway and any concrete you had poured on your own parcel. Bare land structures are commonly townhouses, duplexes and detached homes, which is exactly the housing type where owners assume a board is handling exterior work — and sometimes it is not.
In a conventional condominium, the concrete outside the building envelope is almost always common property, and the corporation carries it.
Either way, check the bylaws before you conclude anything. Bylaws routinely reassign exterior maintenance in both directions, and they are the instrument that overrides the general rule.
One more wrinkle worth knowing: the corporation also has to comply with repair notices or orders issued by a municipal or public authority. If the City flags something on the property, that obligation does not wait for a budget cycle.
Where the money comes from once responsibility is settled
If the concrete is common property, you are still paying for it — just not with your own cheque. Understanding which pot the money comes out of tells you a lot about how fast the work will happen.
| Source | What it is for | What it means for timing |
|---|---|---|
| Operating budget | Ongoing maintenance — the routine, recurring work | Small patches and seasonal work can usually be approved quickly |
| Reserve fund | Major repairs and replacement of common property | Larger jobs are scheduled against a long-range plan, not on demand |
| Special assessment | A one-time levy on owners when the money is not there | Triggered by a shortfall, and the least popular option in the room |
The reserve fund is the one owners should understand, because it is where a full driveway or walkway replacement normally lives. Alberta sets real requirements around it:
- The first reserve fund study must be done within 2 years of the date the condominium plan was registered.
- After that, a study must be done at least every 5 years.
- The study looks ahead over a 30-year timeframe, identifying when property should be repaired or replaced, estimating the cost, and projecting how much the corporation should be holding.
- It is prepared by a third-party provider, not by the board.
Two rules about spending it surprise people. Reserve fund money may not be used for ongoing maintenance — the examples Alberta gives are yard work and window cleaning. And it may be used for capital improvements, but only if those improvements are in the reserve fund study or are approved by special resolution.
That is why a board sometimes says no to resurfacing a walkway this year and yes to replacing the whole thing in three years. It is not indifference. The slab is sitting in a schedule, and the fund is being held against that schedule. If you want to know when your concrete is coming up, ask for the reserve fund study and the reserve fund plan — the plan is where the board records what it has decided to do each year.
To be clear, none of these intervals are warranty periods. A reserve fund study cycle has nothing to do with how long anything is covered; it is a planning and funding requirement, full stop.
The one situation where an owner gets billed directly
There are two ways an owner can end up paying for work on common property.
The first is a chargeback. If you, someone living in your unit, or someone you are responsible for causes the corporation to incur costs, the corporation can recover those costs from you. Driving a loaded trailer across a walkway slab it was never built to carry is the kind of thing that lands here.
The second is the insurance deductible. Under Alberta’s rules, a corporation can recover its insurance deductible from an owner when the damage originated in that owner’s unit. The amount recoverable is capped at the lesser of two things: the actual costs plus reasonable related service costs, and the deductible limit on the corporation’s policy — with a ceiling set by regulation. Alberta publishes a short fact sheet on how the recovery works and the current ceiling, linked at the end of this page.
That rule gets quoted in alarming ways, so here is the part that matters for concrete: it applies to damage that originated in your unit. A common-property walkway cracking from frost movement did not originate in anybody’s unit. It is ordinary deterioration of shared property, and it is the corporation’s to fix out of the appropriate fund. Do not let the deductible rule talk you out of reporting a hazard.
What to do this week if your concrete is cracking
A short, unglamorous sequence that resolves most of these situations:
- Take dated photos. Same angle, with something in frame for scale. If it moves over a season, you will want the before shot.
- Report it in writing to the property manager or board, even if you think it is your responsibility. A written report starts a record, and if it is a trip hazard the corporation needs to know regardless.
- Ask for three documents: the condominium plan, the current bylaws, and the most recent reserve fund study and plan. You are looking for where your unit boundary falls and whether the bylaws reassign exterior maintenance.
- Do not arrange repairs on common property yourself. Even well-intentioned work on shared property can create a dispute about who authorized it and who owns the result.
- Get a diagnosis before a quote if the concrete is yours. Whether a slab needs patching, resurfacing or replacing is a different question from what it costs, and answering it in the wrong order is how people pay twice.
On that last point: not every crack is a problem, and the ones that matter tend to announce themselves. Our guide to concrete cracks and when to worry covers how to tell the difference, and if the surface is flaking rather than cracking, concrete spalling is a separate problem with separate fixes.
Where this page stops
This page is about who is responsible and where the money comes from in an Alberta condominium. It does not diagnose cracks, price repairs, or cover the permits you might need for work on your own property. It does not cover what a homeowner’s own insurance policy does or does not cover for concrete damage, which is a different question with a different answer. It does not cover new home warranty coverage on a newly built home. And it is a plain-language summary, not legal advice — for a dispute about your specific plan and bylaws, talk to a lawyer who works in condominium law.
FAQ
Who is responsible for repairing a condo driveway in Alberta? Usually the condominium corporation, because the driveway is generally common property. In a bare land condominium the driveway is typically inside your own parcel and therefore yours. The bylaws can change either outcome.
How do I find out if my patio is common property? Read the condominium plan, which shows where your unit boundaries fall, and then the bylaws, which say whether the corporation has taken on maintenance of anything inside those boundaries. Request both from your property manager.
What is managed property? Any unit or part of a unit that the corporation is required to maintain, repair or replace under the bylaws. It is how a slab inside your unit boundary can still be the corporation’s responsibility.
Can the condo board make me pay for a shared walkway? Not for ordinary deterioration of common property. It can charge you back for costs you or someone you are responsible for caused, and it can recover its insurance deductible, within limits set by regulation, where the damage originated in your unit.
Why won’t the board fix our cracked sidewalk now? Often because major repair and replacement of common property comes out of the reserve fund, which is planned against a study looking 30 years ahead. Ask for the reserve fund study and plan to see where the work sits in the schedule.
Can reserve fund money be used for routine patching? No. Reserve funds are for major repairs and replacement, not ongoing maintenance. Routine work comes out of the operating budget.
Not sure whose slab it is? We can help you find out
If you own in a bare land complex and the concrete is yours, or you sit on a board getting a reserve fund item costed, we are happy to walk the property, tell you plainly what the concrete needs, and put it in writing you can take to a meeting.
We work across Calgary and the surrounding towns, and we will tell you when something can wait. Have a look at what we cover on concrete repair, or get in touch and we will book a look. In the meantime, if the slab is going into another Calgary winter, our winter concrete maintenance guide will help you avoid making it worse with the wrong de-icer.
Sources
- Government of Alberta, Reserve funds: https://www.alberta.ca/reserve-funds
- CondoLawAlberta, Repairs and Maintenance: https://www.condolawalberta.ca/governance-operations/repairs-maintenance/
- CondoLawAlberta, Bare land condominium: https://www.condolawalberta.ca/glossary/bare-land-condominium/
- Government of Alberta, Recovery of Insurance Deductible: https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/d1cfec95-c9ec-4b0f-bba9-8be0a513931b/resource/4dd63982-4d5a-4c58-a7f5-7330a5db9c0e/download/sa-recovery-insurance-deductible-2020-03.pdf