How to Prepare and Run a Condo AGM in Quebec

Quick answer. In Quebec, the annual general meeting of co-owners must be held within six months of the end of the financial year (art. 345 C.C.Q.), and the notice of meeting must go out at least 10 days and at most 45 days before the sitting (art. 346 C.C.Q.), accompanied by the financial documents required by article 1087. Quorum is reached when the co-owners present or represented hold a majority of the votes. If it is not reached, the meeting is not rescued by a courtesy pause: it is adjourned to a new date, and at that second meeting quorum becomes three-quarters of the members present or represented. Here is how to prepare and run a meeting that holds up, point by point.

What the meeting decides, and what the board can decide alone

The general meeting is the formal gathering of all co-owners. It is the syndicate's highest decision-making body: some decisions can only be made by the co-owners assembled, never by the board of directors on its own initiative. The board administers day to day, executes the adopted budget, hires the vendors, follows the work. The meeting approves the accounts, sets the budget framework, elects the directors and authorizes whatever falls outside the ordinary.

Confusing the two is the leading source of trouble in a small condo association. A board that decides major work on its own makes a fragile decision, one a co-owner can ask the court to annul (art. 1103 C.C.Q.). Conversely, a board that calls a meeting for every detail exhausts its co-owners and ends up gathering nobody at all.

There are two kinds of meeting. The annual general meeting is mandatory: it approves the financial statements, presents the budget, elects the directors and handles routine matters. The special general meeting is called as needed, for a decision that cannot wait for the annual one: a loss, unforeseen work, an amendment to the declaration of co-ownership.

When to hold the annual general meeting

The syndicate is a legal person, and the Civil Code's general rules on legal persons apply to its meeting. Article 345 provides that the annual meeting be held within six months of the end of the financial year. If your year closes on December 31, the meeting must therefore take place by June 30 at the latest.

Your declaration of co-ownership may shorten that window, and many do, often to 90 or 120 days. It cannot lengthen it. The reflex to have before anything else: open the declaration and write down your building's real cut-off date, because that is the one that binds you.

Failing to hold an annual meeting carries no automatic penalty, but it weakens everything else. Without approved financial statements, the board administers without a clear mandate; without a presented budget, the charges are open to challenge; and an unhappy co-owner has a serious argument against the decisions made in the meantime.

The notice: the deadline and the mandatory documents

Two rules stack here, and you have to respect both.

The deadline. The notice of meeting must be sent at least 10 days before the sitting, and at most 45 days (art. 346 C.C.Q.). Those bounds are a legal floor and ceiling: your declaration may require more than 10 days' notice, never less. In practice, aiming for 15 to 21 days gives co-owners time to read the documents and arrange a proxy, while staying inside the window.

The documents. Article 1087 is precise about what must accompany the notice of the annual meeting: the balance sheet, the income statement for the past financial year, the statement of debts and claims, the projected budget, any proposed amendment to the declaration of co-ownership, and a note on the essential terms of any contemplated contract and of any planned work. A notice that arrives on its own, promising the figures on the night, does not meet that article.

On the method of delivery: mail, hand delivery, or email if the co-owner has consented to that method of communication. Consent to email is not a detail, it is what makes the delivery enforceable. Always keep proof of sending and the list of recipients: the day a decision is challenged, that is the first thing you will be asked for.

The right to add an item to the agenda

This is the rule volunteer boards overlook most often, and it protects co-owners. Within five days of receiving the notice of meeting, any co-owner may cause a question to be placed on the agenda (art. 1088 C.C.Q.).

Two practical consequences. First, a board that sends the notice exactly 10 days out leaves itself very little room to fold in a request and recirculate the completed agenda: one more argument for giving 15 or 21 days' notice. Second, a request received within the deadline is not refused because it is inconvenient. Ignoring it hands a ground for challenge to the very person who raised it.

Conversely, once the agenda is settled and circulated, you do not add items on the night of the meeting. A decision voted on a subject that was never announced is open to attack, even if everyone in the room agreed.

The agenda

An annual meeting agenda follows a stable outline: opening and verification of quorum, adoption of the agenda, minutes of the last meeting, board report, financial statements for the past year, projected budget, contribution to the contingency fund, election of directors, other business, adjournment.

Our annual general meeting agenda template details each item, explains how to adapt it to your building and is free to copy, with no sign-up. Rather than repeat here what it already contains, one practical piece of advice: order the items by rising emotional weight. Formal approvals first, divisive subjects next, other business at the very end. A meeting that opens on the most contested topic never gets through the rest.

Quorum, and what happens when it is not reached

Quorum is constituted by the co-owners holding a majority of the votes (art. 1089 C.C.Q.). Watch the arithmetic: votes are counted by the relative value of the fractions (art. 1090 C.C.Q.), not by head. In a building where two large units weigh more than four small ones, four people in the room do not necessarily make quorum, and two people may be enough.

If quorum is not reached, the meeting cannot deliberate. This is where many boards get it wrong: there is no rule allowing you to wait thirty minutes and then sit validly with a handful of attendees. The meeting is adjourned to a new date, with a new notice sent to all co-owners. And at that second meeting, quorum becomes three-quarters of the members present or represented, which makes it workable whatever the turnout.

Another useful point: if quorum falls apart mid-sitting because co-owners leave, any co-owner present may demand adjournment. So handle the important votes early, while the room is full.

The real remedy, though, is not procedural. A missing quorum is almost always the symptom of a year without communication: co-owners who have heard nothing for twelve months do not turn out to approve figures they are seeing for the first time. An announcement channel kept up all year does more for quorum than any last-minute reminder. And if you are looking for how quorum is actually computed, it is counted in votes rather than in people: our guide to quorum and majorities sets out the arithmetic.

Proxies

A co-owner who cannot attend may be represented. The proxy must be in writing, clearly identify the principal, the proxyholder and the meeting concerned, and be handed in before the sitting opens. Check what your declaration of co-ownership says: some cap the number of proxies one person may carry.

The move that changes everything is to include a proxy form with the notice, rather than waiting for absentees to think of it. It is the simplest way to secure quorum in a building where several units are rented or held by non-resident owners.

The majorities, and why they are not negotiable

Not every decision is taken at the same threshold, and applying the wrong one is a ground for annulment.

Routine decisions are taken by a majority of the votes of the co-owners present or represented (art. 1096 C.C.Q.): approval of the financial statements, the budget, ordinary management, election of the directors.

Heavier decisions call for a qualified majority: a majority of the co-owners representing three-quarters of the votes (art. 1097 C.C.Q.). That is the threshold for work that alters the common portions and for several amendments to the declaration of co-ownership.

Finally, the most structural decisions require three-quarters of the co-owners representing 90 percent of the votes (art. 1098 C.C.Q.), notably a change in the destination of the immovable.

One point few boards know, and it settles a lot of arguments: any stipulation in the declaration of co-ownership that changes the number of votes the Code requires for a decision is deemed unwritten (art. 1101 C.C.Q.). In other words, your declaration can neither tighten nor loosen those thresholds. If someone tells you "our declaration provides for a different majority," the Code wins.

Before the meeting, list each item to be voted with the applicable threshold beside it. Five minutes of preparation avoids a decision you have to redo a year later.

The minutes

The minutes are the proof that the decisions were properly made. They record the date, time and place, the verification of quorum, the items dealt with, the precise result of each vote with the votes for, against and the abstentions, and the decisions adopted.

Three practical requirements. They are signed by the chair and the secretary of the meeting. They are kept in the syndicate's register, accessible to co-owners. And they are circulated quickly, including to those who were absent: minutes written six months later are not minutes, they are a reconstruction. Recording the votes against and the abstentions is not a formality: it is what demonstrates that the majority threshold was actually met.

The five mistakes that weaken a meeting

They all recur for the same reason: none of them shows on the night, only on the day a decision is challenged.

Sending the notice outside the deadline, or without the article 1087 documents. Ignoring a request to place an item on the agenda received within the five days. Believing a thirty-minute pause replaces the second meeting when quorum is missing. Applying a simple majority to a decision that called for a qualified one. And going without minutes, or recording only the decisions and not the vote results.

These five mistakes share one consequence: each opens the door to an application to the court to annul the decision (art. 1103 C.C.Q.). A properly convened meeting is not administrative box-ticking, it is what makes your decisions solid.

Preparing the meeting without losing your evenings

Most of the work of a meeting happens beforehand. Three months out, the treasurer closes the financial statements and the board builds the budget. One month out, the notice goes with its documents. After the sitting, the minutes are drafted and the charges issued under the adopted budget. Our guide to self-managing a small condo association places these deadlines in the board's full annual calendar, and offers a calendar to download.

Kohabit covers that sequence: the notice goes to every co-owner from the platform, the financial statements and budget are made available before the sitting, preparatory votes are held online and without an account to create, and the minutes are archived in the syndicate's document space, accessible to the next board. All of it hosted in Canada and compliant with Law 25. See the features or the pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the legal notice period to call a meeting of co-owners in Quebec?

At least 10 days and at most 45 days before the sitting (art. 346 C.C.Q.). Your declaration of co-ownership may require longer notice, never shorter. Aiming for 15 to 21 days gives co-owners time to arrange a proxy and to exercise their right to add an item to the agenda.

What do we do if quorum is not reached?

The meeting cannot deliberate and must be adjourned to a new date, with a new notice to all co-owners. At that second meeting, quorum is constituted by three-quarters of the members present or represented (art. 1089 C.C.Q.). There is no rule allowing you to wait thirty minutes and then sit with a handful of attendees.

Can a co-owner force a subject onto the agenda?

Yes. Within five days of receiving the notice of meeting, any co-owner may cause a question to be placed on the agenda (art. 1088 C.C.Q.). The board cannot set aside a request received within that window because the subject is inconvenient.

Our declaration sets a majority different from the Code's: which one applies?

The Code's. Any stipulation in the declaration that changes the number of votes required for a decision is deemed unwritten (art. 1101 C.C.Q.).

Can the meeting be held by video conference?

Nothing forbids it in principle, but the setup must guarantee identification of participants, verification of quorum by relative value, and traceability of the votes. Check what your declaration of co-ownership provides, and have the chosen format validated if a sensitive decision is on the agenda.

What does the syndicate risk if it holds no annual meeting?

There is no automatic fine, but everything becomes fragile: unapproved accounts, an unpresented budget, challengeable charges, and a solid ground for a co-owner who wants to attack the board's decisions.

Sources

• Civil Code of Quebec, art. 345 and 346 (meetings of legal persons), on LégisQuébec
• Civil Code of Quebec, art. 1087 to 1090, 1096 to 1098, 1101 and 1103 (divided co-ownership), on LégisQuébec
• Rules for the management of divided co-ownerships, Québec.ca

Written by Ben, founder of Kohabit and volunteer board member of his own condo association. This article is informational and does not replace legal advice: the deadlines in your declaration of co-ownership prevail over common practice, and for a sensitive decision, consult a notary or a lawyer specializing in condo law.