The first thing to understand is the framing. You are not paying a company for services. You are paying your proportionate share of what it costs to run and maintain the property that the corporation owns, and you are one of the owners of that corporation.

In general terms, common expenses typically cover:

Maintenance and repair of the common elements. What counts as a common element varies, and in a building it usually includes the structure, the roof, the corridors, the lobby, the elevators, the parking garage and the grounds.

Insurance on the corporation's property. This covers the building and common elements rather than your belongings or your improvements, which is a distinction covered in the next section.

Management and administration. Property management, audit and professional costs, and the running of the corporation.

Utilities for the common areas, and in some corporations certain utilities for the units as well. This one varies enormously and is a specific question to ask rather than an assumption.

Amenity operation, where amenities exist. A pool, a gym, a party room and a concierge all have running costs and those costs sit in the fee.

A contribution to the reserve fund. Money set aside for major repairs and replacements in future rather than for this year's running costs. Section five covers why this one matters more than the rest.

A great many townhouse communities built here over the past twenty five years are freehold homes that sit within a common element condominium corporation.

The structure works like this. You own your home and the land it sits on outright, in the ordinary freehold way. Separately, the community has shared elements that belong to no individual owner, and a corporation exists to own and maintain them. Each home is tied to that corporation, and the monthly fee is your share of maintaining those shared elements. Both things are true at once: the home is genuinely freehold, and the fee is genuinely payable.

What those shared elements are depends on how the community was built. Commonly they include a private laneway or road that the municipality never assumed, visitor parking, a shared walkway, a park or green space within the community, a gate or an entry feature, and the landscaping and snow clearing associated with any of those.

This arrangement is particularly common in rear lane communities, where the laneway behind the homes is shared rather than municipal. If you are looking at a community where the garages are at the back off a lane, ask the question before you do anything else.

The arrangement is set out in the documents registered on title, and the technical terminology for it is a matter for your lawyer rather than something to settle from a listing description. The listing is not proof either way, and neither is the seller's belief about their own home. Ask the question directly and have the answer confirmed on title.

Part of the monthly fee goes into a reserve fund, which exists to pay for the major repairs and replacements that will eventually be needed. A roof, a garage membrane, elevators, a boiler, windows, a private roadway. None of these are annual costs and all of them are certain.

Corporations have a reserve fund study prepared to assess what will be needed and when, and the study informs what the contribution should be. Whether a particular corporation's reserve is adequate for what it is facing is a judgment that depends on the study, the corporation's financial statements and the condition of the property. That reading is your lawyer's job and, where the stakes justify it, a specialist's.

A special assessment is a separate charge levied on owners when the corporation needs money the reserve and the regular fees do not cover. It is the outcome owners least want and it is the reason the reserve matters.

The practical point for a buyer: you are not only buying a home, you are buying a share of a corporation's financial position, including decisions made before you arrived. That is not a reason to avoid condominiums. It is the reason the status certificate review is not a formality.

A status certificate is a package the corporation provides about itself and about a specific unit. It generally covers the corporation's financial position and budget, the reserve fund and the most recent study, the common expenses for the unit and whether there are arrears, any special assessment that has been levied or is contemplated, any legal proceedings involving the corporation, and the declaration, by-laws and rules.

It is requested from the corporation or its management, there is a fee for it, and there are timelines within which it must be provided. Your lawyer reviews it. This is not a document to skim yourself and conclude you understand.

This matters when you are deciding whether to include a condition. A status certificate review condition gives your lawyer the opportunity to read all of the above before you are committed. Waiving it means buying a corporation's finances, rules and pending problems unseen, on the assumption they are fine.

The rules deserve their own mention, because they are where people get caught after closing rather than before. Pets, short term rentals, what you may do with a balcony or terrace, parking and storage, and what alterations require approval. If any of those matter to your plans, they need reading before you remove conditions, not after you move in. Our Richmond Hill condo buyer guide goes further on what to look for.

In Downtown Markham, Markham Centre and the Highway 7 corridor generally, buyers routinely weigh a low rise townhome against an apartment style condominium at a similar point. The comparison is usually made on the wrong axis.

Three questions decide it, and none of them is the fee.

How much do you want to maintain? The further the corporation's responsibility extends, the less falls to you and the more the fee reflects. A buyer who travels, works long hours or does not want to think about a roof is buying something different from a buyer who would rather control their own maintenance and keep the fee down.

What do you actually use? Amenities you use are worth paying for and amenities you do not are a cost. Be honest about which gym you will actually attend.

Who buys it from you? The pool of buyers for a low rise townhome is not the same as for a one bedroom apartment, and the two respond differently to changing conditions. Think about who you are selling to before you buy.

Then compare total monthly carrying cost rather than the fee alone, and compare each property against sales of its own type rather than against the other. Comparing a townhome to an apartment to decide which is better value is comparing two different products.

1. Assuming freehold means no fee. The single most common surprise in York Region, and entirely avoidable with one question.

2. Comparing fees without comparing what they cover. Two numbers measuring different things are not a comparison.

3. Treating the lowest fee as the best value. An underfunded reserve is a bill that has been postponed, not avoided.

4. Waiving the status certificate review to win a competing offer. You are buying the corporation's finances unseen. Understand exactly what you are giving up before you give it up.

5. Not reading the rules until after closing. Pets, rentals, alterations and parking are where owners get caught, and all of them are in the documents.

6. Assuming the corporation's insurance covers your unit and your belongings. It generally does not. Talk to an insurance broker.

7. Budgeting on the fee rather than on total carrying cost. The fee, the taxes, the utilities and the insurance are the number that matters.