Legal Affairs and Advisory

The management plan, past resolutions and any live files are reviewed.

Procedural gaps and risky resolutions are reported to the management board.

Register notarisation, notice procedure and resolution wording are brought into line with the law.

Debt files are opened and a general assembly timetable is set and monitored.

Where payment is still not made despite a written reminder and formal notice, enforcement proceedings can be started by resolution of the management board. Article 20 of the Condominium Law provides for a late payment penalty of five per cent per month on overdue amounts, and that sum is added to the claim.

Under article 28 of the Condominium Law, amending the management plan requires the votes of four-fifths of all unit owners. That proportion is calculated on the number of independent units and is mandatory; it cannot be raised or lowered by a resolution of the general assembly.

If the first meeting does not reach the required majority, a second meeting is held under the procedure set out in the management plan or in the statute. The notice and quorum requirements for that second meeting are different; if that distinction is overlooked, the resolutions passed can later be set aside.

The unit owner is liable for common expenses; a tenant may take on that payment under the terms of the tenancy agreement. When the management pursues the debt, however, it looks to the unit owner. What the tenancy says does not displace the owner’s liability under the statute.

Failing to keep the decision register properly makes resolutions hard to prove and leaves the management exposed in a dispute. In every development we take over, the state of the register is one of the first things we examine.