Co-owner not paying condo fees in Quebec: the syndicate's remedies

Short answer. In Quebec, a syndicate whose co-owner stops paying the common expenses can act in stages. After more than 30 days in default, it can register a legal hypothec on the unit. After more than three months, the co-owner loses the right to vote and cannot sit on the board until everything is paid. A written formal notice starts the interest running. Up to 15,000 dollars, the syndicate sues on its own, without a lawyer, in small claims. Each instalment can in principle be claimed for three years. And most cases are won or lost on the evidence: the dated contribution notice and the detail of the balance. Up to date as of November 2, 2026.

The arrears nobody chased

Unit 4 has not paid its common expenses for six months. Nobody wrote to them: it's the neighbour, you pass each other on the stairs, and everyone assumed it would sort itself out.

The day the board decides to act, it finds three things. The first contribution notice went out by text message, without the breakdown of the amount. The payments made before the arrears began were noted by hand, on a sheet that changed hands along with the treasurer's job. And nobody can say anymore whether unit 4 owes 1,800 or 2,400 dollars.

It is the most common situation, and the most expensive one. The syndicate's remedies are strong. What gives way in the judgments is almost always the file.

Why unpaid expenses don't fix themselves

Common expenses pay for the insurance, the maintenance, the snow removal and the contingency fund. They don't go down because one unit stops paying. In a ten-unit condo with equal shares, if a single unit stops paying, each of the other nine would have to pay 11 percent more to fill the gap.

In practice, nobody does that. The board dips into the contingency fund, postpones work, or ends up voting a special assessment. The co-owners who pay end up financing the one who doesn't, and that is usually when the neighbours' patience runs out.

The arrears also grow with time. Interest runs, fees pile up, and an instalment more than three years old can become impossible to claim. Every month of waiting makes a payment plan harder to keep, for everyone.

The timeline of unpaid expenses

What the law says

The duty to pay, and the notice behind it

Each co-owner contributes to the common expenses according to the relative value of their fraction, their share. Every year, the board sets the contributions after consulting the meeting of co-owners, and the syndicate notifies each co-owner without delay of the amount and the date it is payable.

That notice is the first document in any collection file. Without it, a court cannot tell on what date each amount was due, and therefore from when interest runs. Contributions to the contingency fund are part of the common expenses: the same remedies apply.

Formal notice and interest

A formal notice must be in writing, and it must give the co-owner a reasonable time to pay. From the default onward, or from the due date if the declaration says so, the syndicate is entitled to interest without proving any loss: at the rate set in the declaration of co-ownership, or failing that at the legal rate (art. 1617 C.C.Q.). The legal rate is 5 percent a year, and judgments often add the additional indemnity the Code provides for delay.

Many declarations or by-laws also set a fixed penalty, for example 50 dollars per month of delay. Courts treat it as a penal clause: it applies without the syndicate proving its loss, but it can be reduced if it is abusive. In a 2024 judgment, the Court of Québec awarded 1,200 dollars in penalties to a syndicate that claimed 4,310.93 dollars: 1,637.44 dollars were time-barred, 598.49 dollars remained unexplained in its statement of account, and 875 dollars in fees for a postponed hearing were refused.

The right to vote and the seat on the board

A co-owner who has not paid their share of the common expenses for more than three months loses the right to vote (art. 1094 C.C.Q.). They get it back as soon as they pay everything they owe, including on the morning of the meeting. In the meantime, their votes come out of the majority calculations, which the quorum and majorities guide explains.

The same rule applies to the board. After three months without paying, a co-owner cannot be a director, and the syndicate can replace a director who neglects to pay their own common expenses.

The syndicate's legal hypothec

Once the co-owner has been in default for more than 30 days, the syndicate can register a legal hypothec on their fraction (art. 2729 C.C.Q.). It only exists once a notice is registered in the land register. The notice states the nature of the claim, the amount due on the day of registration, and the amount expected for the expenses of the current financial year and the two following years. The land register insists on that last point: the amount must be precise, because it sets the amount of the hypothec.

The notice can be notarial or a private writing. In the second case, a notary or a lawyer certifies the identity of the parties and the validity of the document. In practice, you go through one or the other. In a case decided in 2019, publishing a legal hypothec had cost the syndicate 467.84 dollars, which the court ordered the co-owner to repay.

In concrete terms, the hypothec ties the debt to the unit. If the unit is sold, or another creditor has it seized, the syndicate is paid out of the price according to the rank of its hypothec, ahead of creditors who have none. When the debt is settled, the syndicate consents to the cancellation. And if the syndicate does nothing, the hypothec lapses three years after registration, unless it has published an action against the co-owner or a prior notice of exercise (art. 2800 C.C.Q.).

Going as far as selling the unit

The hypothec lets the syndicate go further: take the unit in payment, or have it sold under judicial authority. It must first publish a prior notice of exercise, served on the co-owner, which gives them 60 days to surrender the property. Until the unit is taken in payment or sold, they can stop everything by paying what they owe and the costs incurred.

It is a heavy remedy, handled with a lawyer and kept for large debts or co-owners who no longer respond. It has one limit worth knowing before you start: once the prior notice is given, the syndicate can only demand the interest due and the costs incurred, and its lawyer's fees are excluded, even if the declaration says otherwise (art. 2762 C.C.Q.).

Small claims, or the Court of Québec

A personal claim remains the most common remedy. Up to 15,000 dollars, not counting interest, the syndicate can go to the Small Claims Division of the Court of Québec, if it had no more than ten employees during the previous twelve months. That is the case for almost every small syndicate. As a rule, lawyers don't plead there: a director represents the syndicate, and the court office offers mediation at no cost.

Above 15,000 dollars, the claim goes to the civil division of the Court of Québec, up to 75,000 dollars, and the syndicate, like any legal person, must be represented by a lawyer.

One detail can change the court. If the co-owner disputes not the debt but the validity of the meetings that set the expenses (quorum, notice, election of the board), the question belongs to the Superior Court. In May 2026, the Court of Québec declined jurisdiction for that reason and transferred a syndicate's case to the Superior Court. Meetings held by the rules also protect collection.

Lawyer's fees

Many declarations provide that a co-owner in default pays the fees and costs incurred for collection. In a personal claim, a court can award them: in 2017, in a dispute between a syndicate and a co-owner, the Court of Québec ordered 6,037.91 dollars in lawyer's fees repaid to the syndicate, applying its declaration. But the clause can be treated as a penal clause, and reduced if it is abusive.

A syndicate whose claim is poorly built can also lose its costs. In 2009, the Superior Court refused to make the co-owners being sued pay them, because the claim was deficient: the syndicate, the judge wrote, was the author of its own costs.

The time limit to claim

The claim is prescribed by three years, and courts apply that period to common expenses. It runs from the day the right of action arose, which in principle means the date each amount became payable. An instalment from January 2024 can therefore be claimed until January 2027.

Two things interrupt that period: filing a claim in court, and the co-owner acknowledging the debt, even tacitly. In a 2019 case, a mention of the debt in a deed of sale was enough. After the interruption, the period starts again from zero. A written, signed payment plan therefore does two things: it spreads the payments, and it acknowledges the debt.

If the unit is sold

The buyer owes all the common expenses due at the time of the purchase, with interest. If the buyer asks the syndicate for a statement of the expenses due, the syndicate has 15 days to provide it; after that, the buyer is no longer bound to pay those expenses. A sale is therefore a moment when the syndicate gets paid, provided it answers quickly. The same goes for the syndicate's certificate, the document the notary asks for when a unit is sold: the syndicate must also provide it within 15 days of the request.

The mistake that sinks a file

That mistake is a balance the syndicate cannot back up, document by document.

In February 2026, a small Montréal syndicate takes a co-owner to small claims, someone the judge describes as chronically delinquent with the common expenses for at least ten years. In one of the two files, it claims 9,787.57 dollars. It gets 2,115 dollars. Without accounting to support the amounts, the court only awards the years the documents establish, and dismisses the rest.

In 2009, the Superior Court strikes all the interest a syndicate had calculated from its claim. Its notices to the co-owners were not in evidence, and the table it produced started the interest on the first day, at rates checked at random. The court could no longer tell on what date each amount was due.

A collection file comes down to three documents:

1. The contribution notice, dated, with the amount and the date it is payable, and proof that it was sent.
2. The unit's account, line by line: each instalment, each payment, each interest charge calculated at the right rate from the right date.
3. A record of each reminder and of the formal notice, with the date it was sent.

Add the minutes of the meeting where the budget was presented, and the board's decision setting the contributions. With these documents, the formal notice can be written in an evening. Without them, even a debtor acting in bad faith can bring down part of the claim.

What your board can do this week

1. Draw up each unit's balance, with the date of each unpaid instalment and of each payment received.
2. Reread your declaration of co-ownership: the interest rate, the late penalties, the collection costs.
3. Write to the co-owner who is behind, by dated email, with the detail of the balance, and offer a written, signed payment plan.
4. Decide on one rule for everyone at a board meeting: at what delay the reminder, the formal notice and the hypothec go out. Record it in the minutes, so nobody is treated differently from their neighbour.
5. Spot the instalments that are close to three years old: they are the first to claim.

What Kohabit does

Kohabit sends the assessments to each co-owner, with the amount and the due date, and keeps each one in the unit's account. You record the cheques and transfers received, and the Today screen shows you who is behind.

If the board gives its consent for the financial year, a reminder goes out ten days after the due date, and a second one after thirty days. After that, Kohabit stops and hands the list to the board, once a month: arrears that last call for a decision, not a third email. Late fees are also turned on by the board, at your declaration's rate and after a grace period, and the reminder announces them before they are charged. You can export a co-owner's list of payments as a PDF.

Kohabit doesn't write the formal notice and doesn't register the hypothec. It keeps the dated file they rest on, and the next board will find it in the same place.

Frequently asked questions

What should we do when a co-owner doesn't pay their condo fees?

Write to them early, with a dated reminder, then with a formal notice if the delay continues. Keep the contribution notice and the detail of the balance. After more than 30 days in default, the syndicate can register a legal hypothec on the unit; up to 15,000 dollars, it can sue in small claims without a lawyer.

Can the syndicate register a hypothec on the unit of a co-owner who doesn't pay?

Yes, once the co-owner has been in default for more than 30 days. The hypothec only exists once the notice is registered in the land register, with the amount due and the expenses expected for the current year and the two following years. It lapses after three years if the syndicate has published neither an action nor a prior notice.

Can a co-owner who is behind vote at the meeting or sit on the board?

Not if they have not paid their share of the common expenses for more than three months. They get their vote back, and can be elected director again, as soon as they have paid everything they owe.

How long does the syndicate have to claim unpaid common expenses?

Three years, counted in principle from the date each amount became payable. A claim filed in court, or an acknowledgement of the debt by the co-owner, such as a signed payment plan, starts the period again from zero.

Can the syndicate charge its lawyer's fees to the co-owner?

In an ordinary claim, yes, if the declaration of co-ownership provides for it, but the court can reduce an abusive clause. Once the hypothecary remedy has started with a prior notice of exercise, the law excludes lawyer's fees, even if the declaration says otherwise.

What happens if the unit is sold?

The buyer owes the common expenses due at the time of the purchase, with interest. If the buyer asks the syndicate for a statement of the expenses due and doesn't receive it within 15 days, they are not bound to pay them.

Sources

• Civil Code of Québec, arts. 1064, 1069, 1072, 1086 and 1094 (divided co-ownership), on LégisQuébec
• Civil Code of Québec, arts. 1565, 1594, 1595, 1617, 1619, 1622 and 1623 (default, interest, penal clause), on LégisQuébec
• Civil Code of Québec, arts. 2667, 2729, 2757, 2758, 2761, 2762, 2800, 2991 and 3061 (hypothecs and publication of rights), on LégisQuébec
• Civil Code of Québec, arts. 2880, 2892, 2898, 2903 and 2925 (prescription), on LégisQuébec
• Code of Civil Procedure, arts. 35, 87, 536, 542 and 556, on LégisQuébec
• Interest Act (R.S.C. 1985, c. I-15), s. 3 (rate of 5 percent a year)
• Registre foncier du Québec, fact sheet "Hypothèque légale, syndicat des copropriétaires", updated November 8, 2021
• Syndicat de la copropriété du 1340, 1342 et 1344 rue Montcalm c. Dozois, 2026 QCCQ 361 (small claims)
• Syndicat de la copropriété du 4236-4238 d'Iberville c. Rimane, 2026 QCCQ 1828
• Syndicat des copropriétaires du 950 à 980 c. Barault-Lindor, 2024 QCCQ 4659
• Syndicat des copropriétaires Les Jardins du Convent de Notre-Dame phase I c. Pelletier, 2019 QCCQ 2569 (small claims)
• Syndicat Europa Place Youville c. Investissement Algar inc., 2017 QCCQ 3824 (small claims)
• Condominium No 1 Avenue Wood c. St-Martin, 2009 QCCS 2878

Text of the articles and judgments consulted on November 2, 2026, on LégisQuébec and CanLII.

Written by Ben, founder of Kohabit and a volunteer board member of his own condo. This article is informational and does not replace legal advice.