New condo owner welcome guide: who must provide what

Short answer. When a unit changes hands, three separate obligations cross paths, and they do not fall on the same person. The seller must give the buyer a certificate from the syndicate attesting to the condition of the co-ownership (art. 1068.1 C.C.Q.). The syndicate must keep its register at the disposal of co-owners and provide copies for reasonable fees (art. 1070 and 1070.1 C.C.Q.). And the new co-owner, whom nobody warns, must notify the syndicate of the acquisition within 15 days (art. 1065 C.C.Q.). Everything else, garbage day, where the water shut-off valve is, who to call at night, is required by no one, and it is exactly what separates a neighbour who settles in from six months of emails. This guide untangles the three, and gives you a welcome package template to customize for your building.

Three obligations, three different people

When a unit sells, a volunteer board usually gets two messages the same week: one from a notary demanding documents, and one from a new neighbour asking where the garbage goes. Most boards answer both the same way, by instinct. That is where it goes wrong, because the first request is tightly governed by law and the second is not governed at all. Confusing them wastes time in one case and money in the other.

The Civil Code of Quebec splits the work between three people.

The seller must, in due time, give the buyer a certificate from the syndicate attesting to the condition of the immovable held in co-ownership, whose form and content are set by government regulation (art. 1068.1). The syndicate is not the one who hands the certificate to the buyer: it produces the certificate, within 15 days, for the co-owner who requests it. The distinction sounds academic. It is not. A board that sends the certificate straight to the buyer short-circuits the seller, who remains the one bound by the obligation.

The syndicate must keep a register at the disposal of co-owners (art. 1070) and allow it to be consulted (art. 1070.1). That is an obligation to make available, not to deliver: no law requires anyone to assemble a welcome package. The law requires you to be able to answer whoever asks.

The new co-owner must notify the syndicate of the acquisition within 15 days (art. 1065). This is the most ignored of the three, including by buyers themselves, who assume the notary handles it.

A welcome package replaces none of these obligations. It does something else, and that is why it is worth the effort: it keeps all three from degenerating into ten rounds of email, and it carries the part of your building's law that is published nowhere. More on that below.

What the syndicate must keep at the disposal of co-owners

Article 1070 sets out the list, and it is longer than what most boards actually have on hand.

The register contains the name and mailing address of each co-owner, the minutes of co-owner meetings and board meetings, the resolutions in writing, the by-laws of the immovable and their amendments, and the financial statements. It also contains the declaration of co-ownership, copies of the contracts to which the syndicate is a party, a copy of the cadastral plan, the plans and specifications of the building, location certificates if available, the maintenance log and the contingency fund study. Finally, it contains a description of the private portions precise enough to identify improvements made by co-owners.

Consultation follows article 1070.1: it must be possible in the presence of a director or a person designated by the board, at reasonable hours, on the terms set out in the by-laws of the immovable. Every co-owner has the right to obtain a copy of the register and of those documents, for reasonable fees.

Two practical consequences for a volunteer board. First, "reasonable" is defined calmly in advance or negotiated under pressure: write down your consultation terms and your copying rate once and for all, and put them in the welcome package. Second, a register scattered across three computers makes this obligation impossible to meet without losing an evening to it. It is the same underlying problem as a board handover that goes badly: the building's memory has no fixed address.

One point to know, in force since 2022: the register, the documents kept at the disposal of co-owners and any document drafted by the syndicate for a co-owner must be in French (art. 1070.1.1). Your welcome package is one of them.

What the seller must provide, and what boards get asked for by mistake

The sale of a fraction goes through a certificate from the syndicate attesting to the condition of the co-ownership. The seller must give it to the buyer in due time, and the syndicate produces it, within 15 days, for the co-owner who requests it (art. 1068.1). We covered its content and published a free template in our guide to the syndicate certificate on the condition of the co-ownership.

Two other provisions complete the picture, and these are the ones that cost money when ignored.

Article 1068.2 lets the prospective buyer ask the syndicate directly for the documents and information needed to give informed consent. The syndicate must provide them with diligence, subject to privacy protection rules, and at the requester's expense. The board must also send the owner of the fraction, or their successors, whatever it provided to the buyer. In short: yes, you must answer; no, you do not have to absorb the cost; and the seller is entitled to know what was disclosed about them.

Article 1069 is the harshest, and it turns against slow boards. A person who acquires a fraction is bound to pay all common expenses due on that fraction at the time of acquisition, with interest. But a person contemplating the acquisition may request a statement of the common expenses due from the syndicate, and is then bound to pay those common expenses only if the statement is provided by the syndicate within 15 days of the request. The statement is adjusted to the last annual budget.

Read that second sentence again. A buyer who requests the statement and hears nothing within 15 days does not inherit the seller's arrears. The syndicate is left with a claim against a former co-owner who has already left with the proceeds of the sale. A syndicate inbox checked once a month can therefore cost thousands of dollars directly. For a real file, have the reading confirmed by a notary: the mechanism turns on exact dates.

The new co-owner's obligation, which nobody tells them about

Article 1065 is short and unambiguous: a person who acquires a fraction, by whatever means, including through the exercise of a hypothecary right, must notify the syndicate within 15 days.

Almost nobody knows this. Not buyers, who assume the notary passes the information along, and not many boards, who discover the change when a moving truck shows up. The result is always the same: fund calls sent to the old address, an inaccurate register of co-owners, and a notice of meeting that fails to reach half its recipients. An inaccurate register weakens everything downstream of it, starting with the decisions made at the meeting.

The welcome package is the best place to state this obligation, because it arrives at the right moment and it supplies the address to write to. A single line reading "notice of acquisition received on ______" in your template beats a reminder buried in minutes nobody rereads.

The trap in the by-law amendments

Here is the point that justifies a welcome package all on its own, and it is nearly invisible.

The declaration of co-ownership comprises the constituting act of co-ownership, the by-laws of the immovable and the description of the fractions (art. 1052). It is registered in the land register and binds co-owners and their successors from registration (art. 1060 and 1062). So far so good: a buyer gets the declaration from the notary, and it binds them.

But article 1060 treats amendments to the by-laws of the immovable differently from the rest. They must be made expressly, in minutes or a resolution in writing of the co-owners, and it is sufficient that they be deposited in the register kept by the syndicate. They do not go through the Land Registry Office.

The consequence is direct: a new co-owner who read the declaration at the notary's office read an incomplete text. Every rule voted since then, the propane barbecue ban, the moving-day time window, the floating floor soundproofing protocol, lives only in your register. They do not know those rules, and they have no easy way to discover them before breaking one.

That is exactly what a welcome package fixes. It does more than say hello: it carries the part of your building's law that is published nowhere else.

Tenants: not handed over, not enforceable

Many buildings have as many tenants as resident owners, and welcome packages almost always forget them. That is a mistake, and this time the consequence is written down in black and white.

Article 1057: the by-laws of the immovable may be set up against the lessee or occupant of a private portion upon their being given a copy of the by-laws or the amendments to them, by the co-owner or, failing that, by the syndicate. Read the condition backwards: until someone hands them a copy, the by-laws cannot be enforced against them. A board trying to enforce a rule against a tenant who was never given anything is fighting unarmed.

Article 1065 closes the loop. A co-owner who leases a private portion must notify the syndicate within 15 days, giving the name of the lessee, the term of the lease and the date on which they gave the lessee a copy of the by-laws of the immovable. The law asks for a handover date. A welcome package that ends with a dated, signed acknowledgement of receipt produces exactly that date, and produces it before anyone needs it rather than six months later, from memory.

The same logic applies, with the necessary modifications, where the private portion is occupied other than under a lease.

What is only courtesy, and what will save you the most time

Everything above is mandatory. What follows is not, and yet it is the part new arrivals ask about most, because nobody ever writes it down.

List what you, as a board member, know without thinking:

• Garbage and recycling: which day, where the bins are, what happens with compost and bulky items.
• Moving in and out: does the elevator need booking, must door frames be protected, is there a time window or a deposit.
• Parking: the assigned space, visitor spaces, the rule during snow removal, who calls the tow truck.
• Laundry, storage, roof or yard access: hours, tokens, codes.
• Noise, pets, barbecues, flooring: the three or four rules that generate the vast majority of complaints in your building. Not the other twenty.
• Emergencies: where the main water shut-off valve and the unit's own valve are, where the electrical panel is, who to call for a water leak at two in the morning, and the syndicate's insurance policy number.

That last line alone justifies printing the document and taping it inside a cupboard door. A water leak that waits twenty minutes because nobody knows where to shut the water off costs more than ten years of welcome packages.

Add whatever touches money, since that is the main source of misunderstandings: the amount of the monthly charge and its due date, the accepted payment methods, who to write to about an account question. Mention in passing that contributions to common expenses are calculated in proportion to the relative value of the fraction (art. 1064), and that co-owners who have the use of common portions for restricted use alone contribute to the maintenance and routine repairs of those portions. That is the first question people ask when they find out a neighbour pays something different.

The template to customize

The template below follows that structure: legal obligations first, practical life second, and a dated acknowledgement of receipt at the end.

The Word file is editable: put in your syndicate's name, your contact details, your rules, and delete the sections that do not apply to your building. The PDF is there when you simply want to print and fill it in by hand. Both end with the same thing, which is the genuinely useful part: a dated acknowledgement of receipt, signed by the occupant and by a director, to be filed in the register.

Budget about thirty minutes to adapt it the first time, then ten minutes per arrival. And keep a filled-in copy: it becomes the next board's cheat sheet.

Stop rebuilding it at every sale

A welcome package is as much a symptom as a solution. If filling it in means chasing down the current by-laws, the exact charge amount, the name of the right plumber and the date of the last inspection, the package is not the problem.

A syndicate whose register, contracts, maintenance history and contact details live in one place, available to the whole board rather than on one person's computer, fills a welcome package in ten minutes because everything is already there. The register of co-owners updates when someone arrives, not once a year in the panic before the meeting. The consultation required by article 1070.1 becomes a one-minute answer instead of an evening of digging. That is what a tool built for volunteer condo associations changes, and it is the same shift that makes a board handover trivial.

The principle is simple: what lives in a system survives departures and arrivals, what lives in one person's head leaves with them.

Frequently asked questions

Is the syndicate required to give a welcome package to a new co-owner?

No. No provision requires a welcome package. The syndicate must keep its register at the disposal of co-owners and allow consultation, with reasonable fees for copies (art. 1070 and 1070.1 C.C.Q.). A welcome package is voluntary, but it solves a real problem: amendments to the by-laws of the immovable are only deposited in the syndicate's register (art. 1060), so a new co-owner who read the declaration at the notary's office does not know about them.

Does a new co-owner have to notify the syndicate, or does the notary do it?

The acquirer must notify the syndicate themselves, within 15 days of the acquisition (art. 1065 C.C.Q.). The obligation is theirs, not the notary's. That is why registers of co-owners are so often wrong: nobody told anyone.

What must be given to a tenant, and who must give it?

A copy of the by-laws of the immovable. The by-laws can only be set up against a lessee or occupant once a copy has been given to them, by the co-owner or, failing that, by the syndicate (art. 1057 C.C.Q.). The co-owner who leases must then notify the syndicate within 15 days, giving the tenant's name, the term of the lease and the date of that handover (art. 1065 C.C.Q.).

Can we charge for copies requested by a buyer or a co-owner?

Yes in both cases, but on different grounds. A co-owner requesting a copy of the register pays reasonable fees (art. 1070.1 C.C.Q.). A prospective buyer requesting documents from the syndicate gets them at their own expense (art. 1068.2 C.C.Q.). Set your rate in advance and write it into your documents: it is easier to defend than a number improvised under pressure.

Sources

• Civil Code of Quebec, articles 1052, 1057, 1060, 1062, 1064, 1065, 1068.1, 1068.2, 1069, 1070, 1070.1 and 1070.1.1, on LegisQuebec (consulted 5 August 2026)
• Rules on the management of divided co-ownerships, Quebec.ca
• Guide to the syndicate certificate on the condition of the co-ownership, Kohabit

Written by Ben, founder of Kohabit and a volunteer board member of his own condo association. This article is informational and does not replace legal advice: for a concrete case, consult a notary or a lawyer practising co-ownership law.