[Kjesse]

That's the worst case of a special assessment I've heard of based on value of the property, though I am aware of a couple cases that are close.

I'd suggest you get together with other owners who have never sat on the board, compare notes and obtain proper legal advice. Yes it will cost money but given the outlay you're being asked for its worth it.

The bylaws of the condo corp will set out what the board can and can't do in terms of special assessments. I think there is also some investigation warranted into how the initial repair was stated to be 1/3 of the way there but now that's out the door. It bears out some investigation as to if all proper steps were taken in terms of evaluating the need for repairs and carrying them out both in a timely and proper manner, and finally whether the repairs that were made met the standard expected. If some of the fault of the current situation is due to the board not acting reasonably promptly knowing there were leak problems, and that caused them to get much worse, you may have access to insurance for at least partial relief. Also its suspicious that the cost of the repairs has escalated so drastically in such a short period of time.