Holiday Decorations for Condominiums

With the holidays upon us, many of us get into the festive mood by decorating our homes for the season. Your options are practically limitless if you live in a detached residential home. You can go with a classy-looking evergreen garland and some white lights, or at the other extreme, you may be the house with the six-foot inflatable Homer Simpson in a Santa suit. However, you may be more restricted if you live in a condominium. So, before you get into trouble with building management, it’s essential to know the rules.

Decorated Exterior Parts of Your Condominium

Condo owners are generally free to decorate their units as they wish (with a few possible restrictions, which we will discuss later). There may be some confusion, though – especially for first-time condo owners – as to what constitutes their unit and what constitutes a common area. For example, outside the condo door will be considered a common area, and there may be prohibitions against placing something like a wreath.

While one might assume that a rule like “no wreaths on the outside of the door” is because the condo management board is a bunch of grinches, keep in mind that there may easily be safety issues as well. Many artificial wreaths are made from plastic materials that could potentially release toxic gases if a fire occurs.

Additionally, the balcony of your unit may be considered a common area, and there may be rules dictating what may and may not be placed on the balcony. Some condominium building management is very strict about having a uniform appearance in the entire building. So, you may only be allowed to place outdoor furniture on the balcony and nothing more. Other condo buildings may allow for holiday decorations on unit balconies but only for a set period – so condo owners don’t leave out their decorations for months.

And if you are permitted to put decorations on the exterior, there may be limitations regarding the type of decorations. One very likely rule will be that any lights you place outside must be specially CSA-approved for outdoor use.

Decorating the Interior of Your Condo Unit

For condo owners who love to decorate for the season but are restricted on what they can do to the exterior, they will be happy to know that, for the most part, they can usually do what they like inside their unit.

The one important exception to this is that most condo buildings will not allow you to have natural Christmas trees inside your unit. The reason for this is two-fold. The first – and most important reason – is that natural Christmas trees can pose a fire hazard. The second reason is that they can shed needles and make a mess all over the common areas when they are brought in and taken out of the unit.

A Word on Common Area Decorations

Many condo management boards will create simple, tasteful decorations in common areas for the season. These may include lights, poinsettias, or holiday trees. As long as these decorations remain secular, a human rights claim will likely fail.

Contact Levy Zavet today

Are you a condo owner or manager with questions about your legal rights and responsibilities over the holiday season? If so, contact us today to speak to a lawyer.