Dee Gibney
The Toronto Star

When Lorna Semple returned home from work last Friday evening, tired and laden with groceries, she noticed an unusual hubbub in her condo's party room. Santa was handing out envelopes, cider and candy canes to a group of excited residents.

She decided to give it a miss but a neighbour said, "No, no, you must come and see Santa."

Semple collected her envelope and candy cane and returned to her suite.

Expecting the usual Christmas greeting, she opened the envelope. Inside was a cheque for $4,900.

Stunned, she stared at the figure.

"I thought it was a gift from heaven. I didn't imagine it was money," she says with a chuckle. "So I had to go right back down and give Santa a kiss."

Equally surprised were Kim and George Sheppard. When Santa handed them their envelope, they were astounded to find it contained a $4,000 cheque.

Teacher Carol Gordon opened her envelope to discover $2,500. Michelle Faria and Danny Chow received $600. Retirees Peter and Helen Likourezos collected $2,300.

Santa's cheques for the residents at the Shermount, located at 650 Lawrence Ave. W., were part of a $1.35 million surplus left over after all building costs were covered. They ranged from as little as $370 to as much as $8,500 based on each buyer's price increase.

But what developer ever refunds money to purchasers?

In this case, the purchasers are their own developers as well.

Condo buyers acting as their own developers is a novel approach, pioneered in 1992 by Options for Homes, a non-profit development corporation building no-frills condos and townhouses.

"The nature of the Options model is that it allows owners to control and pay for the production of their homes and keep what is left over," says founder Michel Labbé.

Buyers form a development co-operative, which hires Options as their consultant to provide the requisite expertise to develop the project.

Once the project is completed and deficiencies taken care of - which could take years - the co-op dissolves.

"We build a contingency to cover unforeseen expenses into the development, which is two per cent of the value," says Labbé. "But because people are building for themselves, once they have paid all the bills and expenses of building they can decide how to deal with remaining funds."

However, over time, many buyers lose sight of the fact that they are also their own developers, especially if they do not continue to take part in the regular co-op board meetings where decisions are made during the building process. That's why the rebate came as such a surprise to many.

"It just wasn't on the radar," says Danny Chow, 31, an operations analyst with the Bank of Montreal.

"When we came back from work and saw the signs to go and see Santa, we thought it was just a Santa Claus gig for the kids in the building. When we opened the envelope, our jaws were agape."

"You tend to be dubious about these things," says Carol Gordon. "(The rebate) was mentioned at a (co-op board) meeting but people say these things and don't always deliver.

"I never thought I would see it. It's just delightful the way they did it."

Gordon's rebate is already earmarked for a new sofa and Christmas gifts.

"I was really surprised," says Peter Likourezos, 84. "I didn't believe I would get money back."

For Likourezos and his wife Helen, 77, the timing was perfect - it's their 49th wedding anniversary and they will use the money to visit their eldest daughter in Greece. "And buy a new parka and some boots for winter," he adds.

For the residents of the Shermount, the $1.35-million surplus had elements of Christmas past, present and future.

Some $300,000 went toward improvements to the building's roof last fall.

It was also invested in landscaping, stonework, fencing, increased security and an energy audit.

Another $750,000 went to the owners as rebates.

And $300,000 will be allocated to a fund that will be used in perpetuity to help lower-income people buy their own homes. The fund, which was approved earlier this month, will be used to provide loans to purchasers unable to come up with the full minimum down payment.

"We are now in the process of picking 15 people (to buy in the next Options project)," says Labbé. The project, located in Scarborough, is called Village at Guildwood.

Labbé says purchasers will pay off the loan if their income improves. Or they can sell the unit later as a profit, but still have to pay off the loan. The money goes back into the pot to help others become homeowners.

"I have an enormous amount of pride in the groups we work with. They have a strong sense of community - and they are a strong community themselves - so providing funds to others to own is something they are very comfortable with."

One reason for the surplus, Labbé says, was the efficiency of the builder, Deltera Inc., the construction arm of Tridel, Canada's largest condo developer. Construction delays also, ironically, contributed to the surplus in the contingency fund.

Toronto City Councillor Howard Moscoe wanted a number of condo units to be donated to the Toronto Community Housing Corp. for low-income seniors. But it took almost nine months for the city to approve polices to allow this to happen.

During this delay, beginning in the fall of 2000, prices for units at the Shermount increased by 15 per cent, and some buyers were caught in the crunch. Some had to back out of their deals and were allowed to do so without penalty. The ownership of the suites reverted back to the purchaser-owned development co-operative, which was able to sell them for $15,000 to $20,000 more per unit.

"Normally (a surplus) is extra money for the builder," says Labbé. "It's unusual that it goes back to the buyers."

Public health nurse Kim Sheppard, 44, says the delay almost spelled the end of her family's plans to buy.

"When we bought our townhouse in 1999, we paid $203,000; then a year later they said the price had gone up to $216,000," says Sheppard. "I was really disappointed because we were trying to manage on one salary so I could stay home with the kids. This almost tipped the balance. It gave me pause.

"But we liked how they talked about creating a community of people who care about each other."

So they stayed, and, like others, agreed to pay a percentage of the increased costs. Still, they were sceptical when they were told about the rebate.

"We thought, 'Yeah, right.' We weren't banking on it. So when we got a letter mentioning the refund a few months ago - it was vague - we filed it with all our other condo stuff.

"When they told us the price was going up, that was not hard to believe. When they said there would be money coming back, that was harder to believe. So I'm astounded."

Now that the $4,000 refund is a reality, Sheppard, who's back at work, and her husband have another decision.

"We're of two minds," she says. "I see it as a windfall so I would like to do something extraordinary, like take the kids to Disney World. George wants to invest it.

"So we're in negotiations."