In Ontario, anyone providing condominium management services for compensation must hold a licence from the CMRAO — the Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario. The legislation that created this system is the Condominium Management Services Act, 2015, which came into force on November 1, 2017. Before that date, boards had little formal recourse when managers behaved badly.

Verifying a licence takes about five minutes. Here is how to do it properly.

Step 1: Open the CMRAO public registry

Go to cmrao.ca/consumer-protection/public-registry. The registry is free and requires no account. It shows every current and former licensee — companies and individual managers alike.

Step 2: Search for the management company

Enter the company name in the search field. The CMRAO registry requires at least two characters and uses a contains-style match, so a partial name will return results. Searching a distinctive word or two (e.g., the firm’s unique surname or brand word) is more reliable than entering the full legal name. Names with internal punctuation — commas, periods, ampersands — can trip up the search, so drop the punctuation and try distinctive fragments if a full-name search comes up empty.

You are looking for a record with the licence type Condominium Management Provider Licence. That is the company-level licence. Individual managers hold separate licences (covered in Step 4).

Step 3: Read the licence status

The registry shows each Provider’s current status. The meanings are straightforward:

Active — the company is currently licensed and legally permitted to provide condo management services in Ontario. This is the only status you want to see.
Expired — the licence has lapsed. The company may not legally operate. Licences renew annually, so an expired status on a firm you are actively working with warrants an immediate call.
Suspended — the CMRAO has temporarily prohibited the company from providing services. A suspended company must cease all management activities immediately; there is no grace period.
Revoked — the CMRAO has permanently removed the company’s right to operate, typically following a disciplinary process. A serious red flag.
Refused — the CMRAO denied a licence application or refused a renewal.
Cancelled or Surrendered — the licence was ended, either by the company or by the CMRAO.

Only Active means the company is legally authorized. We include non-active licensees in our Ontario directory with clear status flags, because boards sometimes inherit contracts from companies that have since had their licences revoked or expired.

One important caveat: the registry status field alone does not tell the whole story. The CMRAO’s Licensing Actions page lists Registrar orders — immediate suspensions, refusals to renew, and revocations — that may be outstanding while a company still shows as Active in the registry. Check both the registry and the Licensing Actions page before hiring.

Step 4: Verify the individual manager’s licence

This is the step most boards skip, and it is the most important one to get right. A company can hold an Active Provider Licence while the specific manager assigned to your building holds an Expired or Suspended individual licence. The two are tracked separately.

Search the manager’s name in the same registry. Individual managers hold one of two licence types:

General Licence — the full licence. A General licence holder can provide all condominium management services independently: sign status certificates under the Condominium Act, 1998, manage reserve fund expenditures, enter into and terminate contracts on the corporation’s behalf, run meetings, and supervise Limited licence holders. This is what you want the person primarily responsible for your building to hold.
Limited Licence — an entry-level licence for managers with less than two years of experience. A Limited licence holder must work under the active supervision of a General licence holder. They cannot sign status certificates. They cannot make any expenditures from the reserve fund. They cannot enter, extend, renew, or terminate management contracts on the corporation’s behalf without the supervising licensee’s prior approval. They cannot authorize expenditures exceeding $500 from the corporation’s general funds without supervisory approval.

A Limited licence holder can attend and participate in owners’ meetings, but must do so under their supervising licensee’s oversight — they cannot independently oversee an AGM. Status certificates are time-sensitive legal documents with real financial consequences; if your assigned manager holds only a Limited licence, confirm that the firm’s principal General licence holder will countersign any certificates issued.

Every licensed Provider must designate a principal condominium manager — a General licence holder responsible for the company’s management operations. If that person’s General licence lapses, the company’s ability to legally operate is compromised even if the company’s Provider Licence still shows Active. Ask who the designated principal is, then verify their licence too.

The CMRAO requires Providers to notify it within five days whenever a manager’s employment starts or ends. If your company announces a staff change, treat that as a prompt to re-verify the new manager’s licence before they begin working on your account.

Step 5: Check discipline history

The CMRAO’s Discipline and Appeals Decisions page publishes Discipline Committee decisions. Decisions appear after the 30-day appeal period lapses without an appeal being filed, and they must remain publicly available for at least two years.

These CMRAO discipline decisions are published on the CMRAO’s own website — they are not indexed in CanLII under a CMRAO database. However, if a manager or company appeals a CMRAO Registrar decision to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), those LAT decisions are on CanLII, searchable at canlii.org under Ontario LAT decisions.

For Ontario-specific condo governance disputes, the Condominium Authority Tribunal (CAT) is a separate body. Some management companies appear as parties in CAT cases, which are also indexed on CanLII under ONCAT decisions. Our directory flags firms that appear as respondents in published CAT decisions.

What about ACMO credentials?

You may see management companies advertise that their managers hold the RCM designation (Registered Condominium Manager) from ACMO — the Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario. An RCM requires holding a valid CMRAO General Licence plus completing five ACMO certificate courses at 80% or better. It is a voluntary professional credential that signals training beyond the licensing minimum.

ACMO 2000 Certification is a separate ACMO program for management firms (not individuals) that certifies firm-level standards for operations, ethics, financial controls, and service delivery.

Neither designation is a substitute for a CMRAO licence, and neither replaces the verification steps above. An RCM must hold a valid General Licence to legally provide management services. You can confirm ACMO membership through the ACMO website, but the CMRAO registry is the authoritative source for licensing status.

A note on self-managed condominiums

If your board is considering self-management — meaning board members or officers handle management tasks directly — CMRAO licensing does not apply, provided those board members are not being compensated for performing management services. The moment compensation enters the picture, licensing is required. Certain professionals (lawyers, engineers, architects, accountants) may also be exempt when acting within the scope of their licensed profession.

When to re-verify

Licences expire annually. A licence that was Active when you signed a management contract may have expired by renewal time. Re-check the registry at every contract renewal. Also re-check when: your management company announces a staff change; the company is acquired or rebranded; or you receive any communication suggesting financial irregularities.

The CMRAO Licensing Actions page is worth bookmarking separately from the registry — Registrar-level orders (immediate suspensions, refusals) are listed there, not in the main registry search results.

Browse all licensed Ontario condo management companies in our directory →

How to Verify a Condo Manager’s CMRAO Licence in Ontario