Adoption of Bill 16: more transparency in the management of your condominium association.
In addition to the other major changes made to the law of co-ownership following the adoption of Bill 16, several terms relating to co-owner meetings and association rights are confirmed and specified in order to make the management of your co-ownership more transparent and improve the transition between the promoter who sold or built the building and the syndicate :
The syndicate must transmit to the co-owners the minutes of any meeting of co-owners it holds or any written resolution it adopts at meetings of its board of directors, within 30 days of them (articles 1068.1 CCQ and 1102.1 CCQ);
Article 1096 C.C.Q. is specified to remind that a simple majority vote is required to modify the building regulations;
Article 1097 C.C.Q. is simplified and simplified as regards the computation of votes. In the event of an adjourned meeting, the votes falling under article 1097 C.C.Q. can only be done if the co-owners who participate in it represent the majority of the votes of all the co-owners;
Debate on the enforceability of penal clauses in divided co-ownership ends, determining that the penal clause which exists in a regulation, before January 10, 2020 is deemed to be part of the declaration of co-ownership (1053 CCQ and Article 136 of Bill 16). This supposes that the new penal clauses after this date are inserted in the declaration of co-ownership. Consequently, it will be necessary that the vote which adopts them has a majority required to modify the constitutive act and that the declaration of co-ownership, thus modified, is duly published in the Land register of the land survey office ;
The register available for consultation with co-owners has been expanded. Article 1070 C.C.Q. provides a very complete list of information and documents that can be consulted by the co-owners and article 1070.1 C.C.Q. henceforth provides for the exact procedures for consulting this register;
The sharing of the costs of maintenance and routine repairs of common areas for restricted use (eg balconies, terraces or gardens, parking lots, etc.) is allocated only to the co-owners who use it, thus agreeing with case law and recent doctrine. However, it is also specified that different methods of distribution may be provided for in the declaration of co-ownership (1064 C.C.Q.);
The promoter-builder must prepare a provisional budget for the union. The promoter who has underestimated the provisional budget must reimburse the union for the difference between the sums provided and the sums actually committed, unless this difference was due to decisions made by the union after the promoter's loss of control (1791 C.C.Q.);
The promoter will also have to protect the deposits paid by buyers of private units by depositing them, for example, in a trust account of an authorized professional, such as a lawyer or a notary (1791.1 C.C.Q.).
Coming into force
Most of these new obligations came into force on January 10, 2020. The syndicate's obligations to establish a building maintenance book or to obtain a study of the contingency fund (articles 1070.2 and 1071 CCQ), will come into force at the time of the adoption by the government of specific regulations which will be dedicated to them.
Do not panic: the building maintenance book and the study of the provident fund can be established and obtained by the union no later than 3 years and one day after the adoption by the government of the regulations dedicated to them (article 137 of Bill 16). Equivalencies will also be provided for condominiums that already have such a maintenance booklet or a study of their contingency funds.
Successively since 2018, Bills 141 and 16, as well as the subsequent modification of article 1074.2 C.C.Q. of Bill 41 as part of the reform of co-ownership insurance, have significantly changed the law of divided co-ownership in Québec.
There is no doubt that 2020 has been an important year for the condominium associations, which had to prepare and face these new obligations. This is particularly true for the description of private units (article 1070 CCQ), provided for in Bill 141, which needed to be approved by the assembly of co-owners no later than June 13, 2020 for any co-ownerships associations existing on June 13, 2018.
The changes brought by this reform of the law of divided co-ownership in Quebec must be well understood and analyzed in order to apply them in the right way and at the right time in the management of your co-ownership: we will be happy to assist you and discuss together.
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