The co-ownership council: what it can demand from the syndic, and what its members risk

Who sits on the co-ownership council, and for how long?

Members are appointed by the general meeting, by the majority of the votes of all owners set by article 25. The pool of eligible candidates is wider than most people assume. Besides the owners themselves, the law admits their spouses or civil partners and their parents or children. It also opens the door to their legal representatives and their usufructuaries. An owner who lives in Geneva or Milan can therefore be replaced on the council by a son or daughter living in Nice.

The syndic and the syndic's staff are excluded, together with their relatives up to the second degree in the collateral line, even if they own a unit. The exclusion does not apply when the building is run by a non-professional syndic, which makes sense: a volunteer syndic is an owner too.

A term cannot exceed three years, renewable, under article 22 of the decree of 17 March 1967. The number of members and the way meetings are run are set by the co-ownership rules or, failing that, by a simple-majority vote of the general meeting. The law sets no minimum. A council with fewer than three members does, however, lose access to delegated powers, as explained below.

The council elects its chair from among its members. When the general meeting fails to appoint the council members, for lack of a candidate or of a majority, the minutes say so explicitly and must be notified to every owner within one month. A judge can then appoint members who accept the role, or record that no council can be formed.

Doing without a council remains possible, but the bar is high: a special resolution passed by the double majority of article 26. Small co-ownerships, those with five units at most or whose average budget over three financial years stays below 15 000 €, have been exempt by law since 2020.

Assisting and overseeing: what the law entitles it to demand

Article 21 fits in one sentence: in every syndicate of owners, a co-ownership council assists the syndic and oversees the syndic's management. It gives its opinion to the syndic or to the general meeting on any question concerning the syndicate, whether it is consulted or takes the matter up itself, without waiting to be asked.

Oversight comes with a precise tool. After notifying the syndic, the council can inspect and copy any document or register relating to the syndic's management and to the running of the building. That covers invoices and maintenance contracts, as well as statements from the syndicate's bank account or exchanges with a contractor.

A syndic who is slow to answer bears the cost. Beyond one month after the request, the syndic incurs penalties of 15 € per day of delay, charged against the flat annual fee and deducted when the accounts are drawn up. If the syndic still fails to comply, the council's chair can apply to the president of the judicial court, under the accelerated procedure on the merits, for an order in favour of the syndicate.

The general meeting can also vote, by the article 25 majority, two thresholds that give oversight its reach. The first is the contract value above which the council must be consulted. The second is the value above which competitive tendering becomes compulsory for contracts other than the syndic's own. Without them, a multi-year maintenance contract can be signed without the council ever seeing it.

Choosing the syndic goes through the council

Before the general meeting votes on appointing a professional syndic, the council puts several draft contracts out to competition, each drawn up on the standard contract and accompanied by its information sheet. The full procedure, timetable and pitfalls included, is covered in our article on changing syndic. Only what concerns the council is kept here.

Two details of article 21 are less well known. Competitive tendering is not required on pain of irregularity: a council that skips it does not thereby void the appointment voted. It exists to inform the meeting, and it is up to the council to make it useful. It also stops being compulsory when the building has no council at all.

Finally, the council may issue a written opinion on any draft syndic contract. If it does, that opinion is attached to the notice of meeting, together with the drafts concerned. It is the most direct way to weigh on the vote, because owners who vote by post read it before they decide.

Delegated powers since the 2019 reform

The ordinance of 30 October 2019, applicable since 1 June 2020, gave the council a new power, that of deciding in place of the general meeting. Article 21-1 allows the meeting to delegate to it all or part of the decisions taken by the majority of votes cast, the article 24 majority.

The conditions are strict. The council must have at least three members. The delegation is voted by the article 25 majority, for two years at most, and can only be renewed by an express decision. The meeting sets the maximum amount the council may spend in exercising it (article 21-2).

Some decisions stay out of reach. A delegation can never cover approval of the accounts, nor the provisional budget. It also excludes the amendments to the co-ownership rules made necessary by changes in legislation and regulations.

Within the council, these decisions are taken by a majority of members, with the chair holding the casting vote in case of a tie (article 21-5). The council reports on its delegation to the general meeting that approves the accounts, and draws up a report for the owners' information.

Delegation is meant for routine decisions that do not justify a general meeting, such as renewing a maintenance contract. It assumes a council that is present and reachable. In a seafront building where some owners live in Nice for only part of the year, that is the question to ask before voting it.

Unpaid, but accountable

Council members serve without pay. They are nonetheless agents of the syndicate, and article 1992 of the Civil Code applies to them: an agent answers for the faults committed in managing the mandate. The same article softens the rule, since the liability of an unpaid agent is assessed less strictly than that of a paid one.

That leniency does not rule out liability. A council that decides, under a delegation, outside the scope voted or beyond the budget set exposes itself. That is the reason for article 21-4: the syndicate takes out civil liability insurance for each member of the council.

The council has also had a litigation lever since 2020. Where the syndic fails or does nothing, its chair may, on express delegation from the general meeting, sue the syndic to make good the loss suffered by the syndicate (article 15). Any damages go to the syndicate. Without a council, this action belongs to owners holding at least a quarter of the votes.

For a new council member, good practice comes down to two habits. Check that the insurance required by law has actually been taken out. And keep a written record of every request sent to the syndic, because its date starts the one-month period after which penalties accrue.

What changes when a syndic works with its council

An active council constrains the syndic, and we want it that way. At Régie Promenade we would rather have a council that asks for documents than one that stays silent: a question raised during the year costs less than one that erupts in the middle of a general meeting.

We manage co-ownership buildings in Nice from 107 Promenade des Anglais. If your council is preparing for the end of the syndic's contract, or wondering how far a delegation can go, let us talk before the meeting rather than during it.