Volunteer condo board member: how far your liability goes, in Quebec

Short answer. Volunteering means you are not paid. It does not mean you are excused from your duties. A board member must act with prudence and diligence and stay within the powers they were given. When damage comes from a lack of maintenance of the common portions, the syndicate answers for it, and the syndicate's insurance must cover the board. What exposes a person is their own fault: a decision taken beyond the board's powers, an undisclosed conflict of interest, a known problem left unanswered. What protects you comes down to four habits, and all four end up in the minutes.

The Monday night question

A board member opens an email from a co-owner: water coming in on the third floor, the third time since winter. The board has discussed it twice and decided nothing. Then the question arrives, always the same one: "If this goes badly, am I the one who pays?"

It is the most anxious question in co-owners' groups, and the one people get wrong most often. Both extreme answers are wrong. No, a volunteer is not shielded because nobody pays them. And no, they are not putting their house on the line because they accepted a seat.

What the law asks of a board member

A syndicate's board is the board of a legal person, and the Civil Code asks two things of it: act with prudence and diligence, and act with honesty and loyalty in the interest of the syndicate.

Prudence and diligence does not mean never being wrong. Nobody expects a volunteer to see what an engineer sees. What is expected is that you behave as a reasonable person would with the same information: ask for an opinion when the question is beyond you, put the subject on the agenda instead of keeping it to yourself, have the thing that is deteriorating inspected.

Honesty and loyalty point somewhere else: the syndicate's interest comes before your own. That is where the conflict of interest rules below come from.

The Code sets these duties for every board member of a legal person. It has no lighter version for the one who is not paid.

When something goes wrong, who answers

Here is the point almost nobody knows, and it changes the colour of the whole question.

The syndicate is liable for damage caused to co-owners or to third parties by a defect in design or construction, or by a lack of maintenance of the common portions (art. 1077 C.C.Q.). The legal person is in the front line, not the board member who raised a hand.

And that risk has to be insured. The syndicate takes out insurance covering its liability towards third parties, and also the liability of the members of its board, of the manager, and of the chair and the secretary of the meeting (art. 1073 C.C.Q.). This cover is not something a broker offers: it is an obligation of the syndicate.

Two checks, once and for all. Ask your broker for written confirmation that the policy covers board members. Ask for the list of exclusions too, and read it at a board meeting: that is where you find what the insurance will not take.

The three situations that really expose you

The known problem, written down, and left unanswered

This is the real risk, and it is the most ordinary one. A leak reported three times, a quote requested then forgotten, an inspection report sitting in someone's inbox. The syndicate must see to it that the work needed to preserve the building gets done, and the board is the body that carries out that duty.

A board that decides to do nothing for now, with a reason and a date, is acting. A board that does not answer leaves the opposite trace. The maintenance log required by Bill 16 exists for exactly this: it records what was observed, and what was done about it.

The decision taken beyond the board's powers

The board runs the building day to day. Some decisions are not its own: they belong to the meeting, under the majority the Code or your declaration requires. Signing a contract the board had no power to sign means stepping outside the mandate, and a mandatary who steps outside their mandate is personally bound to the party they contracted with.

The guard is mechanical: before signing, check who has to decide, and have the decision recorded with its majority.

The conflict of interest nobody mentions

A board member may contract with the syndicate. The brother-in-law who repaints the stairwell is not forbidden. What is forbidden is silence: the fact must be disclosed at once, recorded in the minutes on request, and the person must abstain from discussing and voting on it.

A board member who fails to disclose risks a court annulling the act or ordering them to hand the profit back to the syndicate. The disclosure itself takes thirty seconds at a meeting.

One board decision binds the whole board

A board member is liable, along with the other board members, for the decisions of the board, unless their dissent was recorded in the minutes. And a member who was absent is presumed not to have approved them.

The consequence fits in one sentence: "I was against it" is worth nothing if the minutes do not say so. It is the cheapest protection there is, and the one most often skipped, because nobody wants to look like they are breaking ranks with a neighbour.

What your board can do this week

1. Write to the broker. Ask for confirmation that the policy covers board members, and for the list of exclusions. File the answer with the syndicate's documents.
2. Read the last minutes again. Does every decision say who voted which way, and record any dissent? If not, change how they are written at the next meeting.
3. List the subjects that have been open for more than three months. Give each one an outcome: a date, a quote requested, or a decision to do nothing for now, with its reason. A written decision beats silence.
4. Go around the table on interests. If a board member, their family or their business might deal with the syndicate, say it now and write it down.

If your board has just changed hands, the transition list covers these points at the moment they all come up at once.

What Kohabit does

Kohabit keeps the trace: board decisions with the detail of the votes, dissent recorded, co-owners' requests and what followed, documents and invoices in the same place as the decision that produced them. It is not legal protection. It is the memory you lack the day someone asks what was decided in March.

Frequently asked questions

Can a volunteer board member be sued personally?

It is possible, but it is not the rule. When damage comes from a lack of maintenance of the common portions, the syndicate answers for it, and its insurance must cover the members of the board. What exposes a person is their own fault: acting beyond the board's powers, hiding a conflict of interest, leaving a known problem unanswered.

Does the syndicate's insurance really cover board members?

The syndicate must take out insurance covering its liability towards third parties and that of the members of its board. Ask your broker for written confirmation, and for the list of exclusions: that is where you find what is not covered.

What if I am against a board decision?

Have your dissent recorded in the minutes. Without that line, you are liable for the decision along with the other board members. A member who was absent is presumed not to have approved it.

Am I liable for what was decided before I joined?

You answer for what you do once you know. An inherited problem left unanswered becomes yours; the same problem with a date, a quote requested or a written decision to do nothing for now stays a decision of the board.

Sources

• Civil Code of Québec, arts. 321, 322, 323, 325, 326 and 337 (administration of legal persons), on LégisQuébec
• Civil Code of Québec, arts. 1039, 1073, 1077 and 1086 (divided co-ownership), on LégisQuébec
• Civil Code of Québec, art. 1457 (civil liability) and art. 2158 (a mandatary who exceeds their powers), on LégisQuébec

Text of the articles consulted on September 22, 2026.

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: for a specific situation, consult a notary or a lawyer practising co-ownership law.