The Owners' Assembly, Meetings and Quorums

When does the assembly meet?

The owners’ assembly meets at least once a year, at the times set in the management plan. If the plan sets no date, it meets in the first month of each calendar year.

Where something important arises, an extraordinary meeting may be called at the request of the manager, the auditor or one third of the owners. That request must be notified in writing to all owners at least fifteen days before the requested date.

Meeting and decision quorums

The calculation looks at two measures at once, and this is where mistakes are most often made:

	Meeting quorum	Decision quorum
First meeting	More than half of the owners by number and by land share	Majority of those attending
Second meeting	No quorum required	Absolute majority of those attending

If the first meeting is inquorate, the second is held no more than fifteen days later.

Each owner has one vote regardless of land share. An owner of several units has a vote for each, but those votes together may not exceed one third of the total.

Decisions requiring a heavier majority

A simple majority is not enough for everything:

• Amending the management plan: four fifths of the owners
• Useful improvements and additions to common areas: majority by number and land share
• Encumbering the property or dividing the land: unanimity

Annulment: mind the one-month limit

Under Article 33 an assembly decision may be challenged:

• An owner who attended: within one month of the decision
• An owner who did not attend: within one month of learning of it, and in any event within six months of the decision

Having a service-charge decision annulled years after it was taken, because the meeting was convened improperly, has serious financial consequences. This is why documenting the notice, the attendance register and the quorum calculation matters so much.