Changing syndic in Nice: the procedure, the timetable, the pitfalls

Can you change syndic, and when?

Yes, and more often than people think. A syndic's term of office cannot exceed three years. More importantly, since 1 July 2015 a syndic contract does not renew by tacit reconduction: at each expiry a new contract conforming to the standard contract must be drawn up and approved by the general meeting.

The consequence is simple, and many co-ownership councils do not know it. You do not endure a syndic until you find the courage to challenge him: the question comes back as of right, on the agenda, at every end of mandate. There is no conflict to provoke, there is an appointment to prepare for.

The right moment is counted backwards. The meeting that appoints the syndic is held within the three months preceding the end of the current contract, while the outgoing syndic is still in office: convening it too late risks annulment. In practice, a council that wants to compare must start five to six months before expiry.

Who puts the candidates out to competition?

The co-ownership council, and it is written into the law. Before the meeting rules on the appointment of a professional syndic, the council puts several draft contracts out to competition, drawn up in line with the standard contract and each accompanied by its information sheet (article 21 of the law of 10 July 1965).

That competition can be set aside, but not in a hurry. The general meeting may exempt the council by a vote at the majority of article 25, provided the request was placed on the agenda of the previous meeting. In other words the exemption is decided a year ahead. A syndic invoking it on the day of the vote, with no earlier resolution, is either mistaken or misleading you.

And if the council does nothing? A single co-owner is enough. The law gives them the right to ask the syndic to place on the agenda the examination of draft contracts they supply. That is the safety valve preventing an inactive council, or one too close to the sitting syndic, from locking the situation.

How do you table a candidate the syndic cannot refuse?

By recorded letter with acknowledgement of receipt, addressed to the syndic in office, enclosing the draft resolution and the candidate's draft contract. The syndic cannot refuse that listing: it is binding on him, whatever his view of the competitor put before him.

Two precautions are worth taking. Send it well before the convening notice, because a letter received after the notices have gone out arrives too late for that meeting. And keep the acknowledgement of receipt: it proves the listing was requested in good time, and omitting a properly requested resolution weakens the whole meeting.

This point is the crux of the procedure. A council that does not know it depends on the goodwill of the very person it is considering replacing, a position no one leaves satisfied.

Which majority carries the vote?

Candidates are voted on one after another, at the absolute majority of article 25: a majority of the votes of all co-owners, present, represented or absent. It is a demanding majority, and many meetings miss it by a whisker for want of turnout.

The law provides a second chance. If no candidate reaches that majority but one has gathered at least a third of the votes of all co-owners, a second vote may be held immediately, in the same meeting, at the simple majority of article 24, that is of the votes cast alone. This mechanism avoids reconvening a whole meeting over a missed threshold.

Hence a very practical piece of advice, with nothing legal about it: turnout decides as much as conviction. A council that has prepared its change and let the proxies slip loses on a point of organisation.

How do you compare two contracts without going wrong?

The comparison is easier than it looks, because the form is imposed. The decree of 26 March 2015 sets a standard contract from which every candidate must start, and an exhaustive list of the specific services that may give rise to remuneration on top of the fixed fee.

What is compared, then: the annual fixed fee for day-to-day management on one side, and on the other the price of each specific service, line by line. Two contracts showing the same fixed fee can produce very different invoices depending on what each has placed in specific services, and at what price.

Look first at the lines that fire often in an older building: charge recovery costs, attendance fees for an additional meeting, works supervision, issuing documents on a sale. On a Belle Époque seafront co-ownership those items weigh more than the difference in fixed fee.

The pitfalls of changing, and how to avoid them

The first is the timetable, already mentioned: a meeting convened outside the three months preceding the end of the contract exposes the appointment to challenge.

The second is the effective date. The new contract takes effect at the earliest one clear day after the meeting. That rule exists to prevent two syndics overlapping or, worse, the co-ownership finding itself for a moment with nobody able to sign and pay.

The third is the handover. The outgoing syndic must give the new one the syndicate's archives and funds within the time limits set by the regulations. This is where things most often go wrong: a file handed over late or incomplete delays the first meeting, the recovery of charges and sometimes the payment of suppliers. It is claimed formally, in writing, from the day of taking office, not when the gaps are noticed.

One last reflex, useful even before choosing: check your co-ownership's entry in the national register. It is compulsory, and how it has been kept says a great deal about how the building has been run.